Prenursing sophomore Jen Ung was surprised by the suspicious man who knocked on her door Wednesday afternoon in Abbot Hall asking for donations to his church.
“He had one tooth and just looked really sketchy,” Ung said. “He gave this whole speech about his church that he was raising money for. … It kind of sounded like a scam.”
MSU police are seeking a man similar to the description Ung gave, who was collecting donations for a church with no Michigan affiliation and allegedly sexually assaulted a student in Holden Hall also on Wednesday.
It’s unknown if the suspect in the sexual assault and the man soliciting donations in Abbot Hall are the same person.
The suspect in the reported sexual assault was seeking donations for United Restoration Ministries, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.
Police sent out a crime alert e-mail Wednesday afternoon after an 18-year-old female student reported being sexually assaulted in her Holden Hall dorm room at 5:55 p.m. by the man soliciting donations.
McGlothian-Taylor said a scam had been reported in 2007 across Ohio regarding an organization using the name United Restoration Ministries, a church with several branches in Texas and California.
The organization was said to be raising money for local battered women, but local organizations did not receive any money, said Beth Meeks, executive director of the Open Arms Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Center in Findlay, Ohio.
Meeks said she heard of incidents where the scam artists used her organization by name when raising money.
“It just makes people distrust the whole nonprofit system,” Meeks said.
The man in Abbot Hall told Ung he needed $5,000 to keep his church from being demolished.
Ung said she was outraged about the ease the man had in entering and walking around her residence hall.
“At night, we have the security thing where you swipe your card to get in the dorm, but during the day anyone can come in,” she said. “I wish we had something to check people in during the day so things like this wouldn’t happen.”
McGlothian-Taylor said she was concerned that there have been reports of incidents involving people using United Restoration Ministries’ name at MSU.
“We need people to call with a description or a license plate number of anyone they see representing this organization,” she said. “Students can’t be giving away their hard-earned money in times of crisis to scammers like this.”
Call MSU police at (517) 355-2221 to report suspicious activity or with any information on this case.
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