Uninvited man found asleep in Miami fraternity house, charged with burglary

Credit: Butler County Jail

Credit: Butler County Jail

OXFORD — A tired intruder made himself at home recently at the Sigma Chi fraternity house on East Sycamore Street but his sleep was interrupted by a police officer waking him up in a third-floor bedroom.

Police were called by the fraternity’s property custodian at 8:45 a.m. June 20.

Nathaniel K. Patrick, 40, of Hamilton, was taken into custody and charged with burglary.

The only resident of the fraternity house at the time, who resides in a different part of the building, told the responding officer he had gone to bed at 2 a.m. but heard noises at approximately 2:30 a.m. but did not get up to investigate. After getting up in the morning, he found items thrown around and contacted the property custodian, who then did a walk-through and found a window and door propped open and items strewn about in several rooms.

He found Patrick asleep in the third-floor room and called police.

Responding officers found him as described and woke him up. They asked several questions, which produced unintelligible responses. They also found a desk on its side and items in the hallway outside the door. He was reportedly looking around the room in confusion and saying he did not know where he was or how he got there, the police report says.

He was then taken downstairs and placed in a police cruiser.

Both the property custodian and lone resident of the house said they did not know Patrick or invite him into the residence. Both were given statement forms to complete and return to the police department after they did a thorough walk-through to look for missing or damaged items.

Detectives were dispatched to the house to process the residence, which had multiple rooms with items thrown everywhere, the report stated.

Patrick was taken to the police department where one of the detectives returned to read him his rights and question him. Patrick said he had been to a birthday party at Hueston Woods the evening before with his girlfriend and another male. He remembered being at the UDF store at 2 a.m. and walking away after an argument with his girlfriend. He said he remembered going to at least two residences looking for a place to sleep or arrange a ride home to Hamilton.

He allegedly remembered going to a fraternity house and taking pool cue sticks apart to use to hold windows open on the front of the house. He claimed to not remember anything else but was confident he did not break in, entering only through unlocked doors and saying he did not steal any items from any locations.

He was charged with burglary.

In court, bond was set for Patrick at $15,000 and the case was bound over for Butler County grand jury consideration.

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