One of the residents of the house told officers he heard noise downstairs and found a man he did not know inside the house. A fight ensued and his roommate came down to help. As they struggled with the intruder, they said three other men shattered the door and entered to rescue their friend. They told police they believed the four had come from a residence across the street.
One officer went to the porch of that residence and heard voices inside talking about a fight. They were asked to come outside and talk about it. The two residents of the fraternity house allegedly positively identified the four men as the four involved in the fight in their house. The four were read their rights and said the first of the four of them had been dragged into the house by the two and the other three went in to rescue their friend.
Among other things, they said there were broken beer bottles on the sidewalk, which officers did not find and two men in the fraternity house were found to have suffered injuries including rug burns from the fight. They also told officers the door had been standing open when they went in but it had been shattered. The first man is believed to have entered through a back door.
Three of the four were Miami University students, ages 22, 21 and 21, who lived in the house across the street from where the incident occurred. The fourth was friend of one of them visiting from northern Ohio, age 22. All four were charged with aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony. The aggravating factor was the physical harm done to the residents.
The four men were charged and taken to the Butler County Jail.
Woman charged with shoplifting
An Oxford woman shopping with her husband and 6-year-old daughter was allegedly placing items in her purse while in the Oxford Walmart store at 4:46 p.m. Nov. 30. Police were called by the store’s loss prevention staff and told they had been watching the woman, 28, place laundry detergent, dog food and de-wormer, six items of baby clothes and three DVD movies in her purse.
Value of the items was listed as $81.18.
The woman’s husband denied he was involved in taking items from the store. He took their daughter home to be cared for by relatives before going to the Oxford Police Department, where his wife had been taken for questioning.
She reportedly told officers she took the items for her sister’s puppy and baby, calling the act “stupid.”
She was charged with theft, a first-degree misdemeanor, and taken to the Butler County Jail.
Burglary report follows break
A woman returned to her Oxford residence Dec. 1 after being away five days for the Thanksgiving break to find her residence had been burglarized.
The report said the Bishop Street residence was unoccupied during that time and the door locked, but entry may have been gained through an unlocked side window. A four-foot Christmas tree and sorority paddle are the only items repeated stolen.
There are no suspects in the theft.
Passport missing in package theft
A package was reported stolen from the doorway of a Miami Commons apartment Nov. 18. The Miami student reporting the theft said the package contained his passport being sent to him from Chicago.
He said he had expected the package on that date but it had not arrived. He later found the package had tracking on it from the U.S. Postal Service and learned it had been left on that date. The investigation is continuing.
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