A Ball State University freshman who police said was trying to use books without paying for them was arrested Tuesday night on the charge of trespassing in the Ball State Bookstore, after it had closed.
After listening to 18-year-old Timothy Whybrew's story, police said they decided to charge him with trespassing, a misdemeanor, rather than the felony charge of burglary.
"The kid really had good intentions for being in the place," Cpl. Dave Starkey of the University Police Department said. "He had a class project due tomorrow, and he stayed in there to get information from the books without paying for the books."
Whybrew was caught when a security alarm went off shortly after the store closed Tuesday, Starkey said. Officers searched inside but found nothing out of the ordinary at first, he said. After the search, Starkey waited outside the store for the manager to come and turn off the motion-triggered alarm, he said.
"I was standing outside waiting on the manager when I saw [Whybrew] inside the bookstore walking towards us," Starkey said.
Whybrew, a resident of Beeman Hall, appeared visibly shaken as UPD officers questioned him. The student sat in a wicker chair outside the bookstore with his pockets turned inside-out as police officers searched his backpack. Police found a knife and confiscated it.
Bookstore manager Toni Rains said this was not the first time a student hid inside the store until after it closed, but it was always a student employee.
Whybrew was released at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday on $1,000 bail, a jail official said.
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