A vandal was caught spray painting the side of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house at 35 High St. late Wednesday night.
Alexandra Tananbaum ’18 said she saw the man spray painting the southwest side of the house with yellow paint around 9:30 p.m. The graffiti, she said, was unintelligible. Tananbaum took a picture of the vandal, who she described as middle aged with a beard, and contacted President of SAE Grant Mueller ’17, who was in the house at the time. When the vandal saw that Tananbaum had stopped in front of the house, Mueller said, he fled down High St. towards Chapel St.
After receiving Tananbaum’s call, Mueller called the Yale Police Department and responding officers arrived at the scene within five minutes, he said. According to Mueller, the police handcuffed the vandal and put him into a squad car in front of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house on 31 High St. Mueller said the police told him they issued the man a citation about 20 minutes later.
Police responding to the call said they could not comment on the incident, and YPD dispatch could not confirm whether or not they had responded to the call. New Haven Police Department spokesman David Hartman said he could not comment on the situation because he was out of town during the incident and YPD Assistant Chief of Police Michael Patten said he had no information on the vandalism.
The incident occurred hours after Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway sent an email to the student body stating that no disciplinary action would be taken against the fraternity following an investigation into an allegedly “white girls only” party over Halloween weekend. However, the events are not known to be connected. Mueller said that he had “no idea” why the man vandalized the house, and both Mueller and Tananbaum said they could not interpret what the writing said.
According to Mueller, the last time that the SAE house was vandalized was the summer of 2014.