CU Students Wary After Sex Assault Attempt, Rash Of Break-Ins

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Officers have just found a fourth case where a man has sneaked into people's homes in Boulder. Police said he attempted to sexually assault one person inside one of those homes.

Three crimes happened early Saturday morning in the 1100 block of Lincoln Place. A fourth happened on Pleasant and 10th streets.

News of the four Saturday morning trespassing cases and an attempted sexual assault leaves frazzled nerves among the college students whose neighbors are the victims on Pleasant Street.

"We don't really feel safe," one University of Colorado student told CBS4. "I get nervous and my roommate said she couldn't sleep last night because she was thinking about it all night. It's just really creepy."

"Actually it does worry me. I'm not going to lie. It does freak me out," student Ashley Kang said.

"We live in a house with nine girls and it's scary to think that people can just break into your house," student Lauren Jacoby said.

Boulder police say three of the victims are women and the fourth is a man. All of them woke up, confronted the trespasser, and he left.

"In all of them the suspect went into the residences through an unlocked door. In one case he attempted to sexually assault the young woman. He wasn't able to complete that; she confronted him and he left," Boulder police spokeswoman Kim Kobel said.

The suspect is described as a white man in his mid-20s, although police say one person described him as old as 50, between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10 with a medium build and a dirty blond or brown buzz cut hairstyle. He was wearing a dark-colored jacket and jeans.

"I'm definitely concerned for the girls," student Kevin Tancredi said. "They're friends of ours. We wouldn't want, obviously, anything to happen to them."

Male students say they're also concerned for their own safety.

"It's easy for someone to come into our house while we're sleeping and take something, or hurt one of us," Connor Moore said. "It's hard to know what someone's going to do when they come into your house at 3 a.m. in the morning uninvited."

As the investigation continues, the message from police is simple.

"You need to lock your doors. In every single one of these incidents the suspect went in through an unlocked door," Kobel said.