Fugitives Staying At Lambda Chi Alpha House In Knoxville
 

Guys you won't believe this crap. We had 2 fugitives living in our fraternity house over the summer whom befriended the entire chapter. They told us they were brothers from the LSU chapter that had been in grad school at Tulane and came to Knoxville because they were refugees due to hurricaine Katrina and were now enrolled at UT (really complex).
They got jobs at a bar my friend is the manager of called Liquid Knoxville and both had $2000.00 dollars from the credit cards FEMA issused. They lived the life at UT buying a big screen tv and having huge parties on the weekends. THEIR PARTIES WERE FREAKING WILD.
Well it turns out they escaped from their jail cell or the correctional facility by making keys out of toothpicks. One of them had a 20 year sentence for armed robbery and a few other charges the other had a 10 year sentence for serious credit fraud and other charges. Last week one of them was busted at a gas station for using a fake 10 dollar bill. He tried to bite his fingernails and fingers off in the car so they could not find his prints and find out who he was. Soon after the cops found him, he told them he was living at one of our off campus houses. They totally went through 2 brothers houses and did not find them. Then on Monday night they raided the Lambda Chi house looking for the other guy and he was nowhere to be find. Eventually one of the brothers said the fugitive was seen at the library 30 minutes ago that night. Well the cops shut down the library, found his gun in a trash can and later arrested him.
I hungout with this guy he went by the alias of Zach and was really nice. He did anything for anyone but a lot of people thought he was shady because he had all types of stories. Anyway, there are a bunch of articles online about this. Go to www.utk.edu and type campus search and go to the daily beacon which is our school newspaper.
Here is one article attached. http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showartic...rticleid=49163
Go to yahoo and you can find a few more articles. This is crazy, oh yea our chapter is not in trouble for anything because we were the victims in all of this crap.

Glad you guys are ok.

Do you guys get to keep the TV?

LOL

IN ZAX.......

Oh Sweet Jesus
 

What did Biff have to say?

I think I need to go to Indy and take him out for an attorney / client conference

Wow thats a bit nuts......Hope everyone is ok....damn

Whoa, luckily nobody got hurt

FYI- If these folks were living in your house you may want to have everyone check their credit card and credit records, they could have been selling personal identity info based on stealing your mail, going through rooms/ wallets etc.

Who knows what was happening when you werent watching.

Lenoxxx

I co-sign this with Brother Lennox.

Thats crazy, sounds like a movie. Two guys escape from jail and live in a fraternity house living the dream life of most college students. Crazy story though, seems like you could figure out they didn'nt know much about the fraternity and that would indicate they were lieing.

I wanna, I wanna
 

I'll write the story & screen play. Who do we get to star in it? Gotta be college age.

Let's see - Brad Renfro? yeah, that's the ticket - he has experience.

Re: I wanna, I wanna
 

and Renfro lives in Knoxville......

and Chris Klein could play one of the fraternity brothers........LMAO

who should we get to direct?

Michael Westmore could do the Special Effects Makeup.

and Tom Earp could play the "Jackie Gleason"-type character from "Smokey and the Bandit" chasing the fugitives.

Sheriff Tom Earp
 

Sheriff Tom Earp, now that's the ticket!

In ZAX,

Mike,
Z-U Zeta

Shorter Jackie Gleason!;)

If the same held true in this situation as it did when I stopped by the UT House years ago, these Brothers were extremly pleasent and cordial. They want My wife and I to spend the night and have dinner. That is why I always have a very big soft spot fot the Zeta there.

I echo the thought that everyone is alright. Maybe the "Good Brother Hood" over came the Bad Guys"! :cool:

While it is easy for people to say "why didnt they know, or test these guys etc." Sometime's you dont think about people like they are a threat, and the UTK guys were victims of a carefully crafted fraud scheme like millions of americans are everyday to a lesser degree (Spam, Phishing, mail and phone fraud, indentity theft) this one is just over the top.

I actually know a few folks that got nailed by that nigerian mail money scam. Sometimes the BIGGER the lie, the easier it is to pull it off.

Who would think that two LCA bros from Lousiana asking for a place to stay would be criminals in disguise? It sounds to outrageous to occur, but it did. How many brothers did we "challenge" in college? If they said they were bros, you just assumed it was true.

Again thank god nobody was hurt

And Im nominating Lifesaver to play Sheriff Earp's son in the movie adaptation....

Lenoxxx

That will have to be in a private discussion on that suggestion!;) :D

OK so He is My Illagitiment Adopted Step Son/Brother, I still wonder!:confused:

That's craziness.

Did you guys ever do anything to verify that they were Lambda Chi's? The challenge? Meaning of secret mottos?

Maybe they were Chesney fans and were looking for the keg in the closet?

I have been in and out of Knoxville since May because I no longer live there and was working in North Carolina. I hung out with the two fugitives a decent amount when I was in town. I was extremely skeptical about these guys but my fraternity brothers insisted they were good guys. I actually got a long with them very well but there stories were sproadic and inconsistent. I told one of the guys I was from Chapel Hill, NC and he said he went to undergrad there before transferring to LSU. I knew he was lying because I started asking him questions about Chapel Hill. One of them definitely lived in Baton Rouge for some period of time, so they probaly had some kind of connection to one of the brothers/alumni in the LSU chapter in the past.

I am not sure if they were ever challenged, we have a lot of visiting brothers stop by our chapter (especially football weekends) and traditionally we only challenge brothers during band parties/ritual events, or other brotherhood events. We are a laid back chapter and when two guys stop by your house randomly asking for help and they seem credible, I think we looked to help them first rather than be skeptical. Also, we have had numerous brothers stay with us some who are on this website. I know some brothers from San Antonio, BAMA, UNC-Greensboro, stopped by the chapter this summer and fall, some of those guys are on this website. They were treated very kindly and maybe they could tell you if we challenged them or not.

I cannot tell you how much I hate it when I go to a chapter and the first thing another brother does is challenged me with the handshake or make me say the creed. I think you should talk to somebody about their chapter and maybe a few general questions about the fraternity. ALSO TRY INTRODUCING YOURSELF. If they seem skeptical then you ask for the handshake. I have actually had brothers come to our chapter house at UT and ask me to say the creed. I could rattle off the creed in a matter of seconds but I was rather pissed they challenged me in my own fraternity house.

Obviously, we got screwed but I believe these guys had prior information about Lambda Chi Alpha. Like I said I was not there the whole time so I do not know how they were first introduced to the chapter. They did not screw anybody in our chapter over besides they got a free place to stay for over a month. Anyway, that is my take on the whole situation, I do not use this website much so if you want to contact me e-mail me at ryandaley05@yahoo.com.

When we stayed there overnight this summer, they didnt challenge us, but they knew who we were. The UIW Theta roomed with the Kappa from UTK, and it was the Kappa who offered us the place to hang out and crash in Knoxville, before we even left the Maryland campus.

I am sure it could easily happen anywhere. Especially with the impact Katrina/Rita had on the country. We all were wanting to help, and unfortunately, some people took advantage of that.

It was on the Today Show this morning. They even did a live interview with Sam, the High Alpha in front of the house.

It was so wierd seeing the coat of arms on NBC (while not followed by an allegation). It was also wierd seeing Sam on TV. I remember hanging out with him at the house when we stopped by this summer.

Damn I would have loved to have seen that this morning.

Anyone tape it by chance?

It's online! Check it while you can!

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=0e...51f100f&f=copy

Theres a commercial you have to watch first.

Yea its a crazy story. Been all over every major newspaper source the past few days but the best one they did was a three page article in the Knoxville paper.
These guys kept a diary of all the events that happened and all of their adventures after they escaped. Stephen Ridge was really smart, he ended up getting busted on a stupid move, but he was a CPA in New Orleans and once earned millions of dollars. Maybe with all the diary notes and journals they made, there will be enough information to make a movie in the future.
Anyway, thanks for believing me when I told you because this is one of the craziest stories I have ever heard, and its hard to believe at first. At the same time, this will be a positive PR move for our fraternity for spring rush. Everybody is talking about us and we are planning on making a shirt that says
"Lambda Chi's parties are so fun, we got/there are fugitives busting out of jail to come to them." Just a thought, anybody have better ideas it would be great to hear them. Have a great break everyone and stay safe.
Oh yea just in case everyone was wondering nationals has said nothing about this and about a few other things our chapter has experienced this year. Makes me wonder what the hell is going on overthere.

Simple seems to work better for tee shirts

How about something like

"Lambda Chi Alpha aint a crime...
But it might be a felony to get in!"


Then throw in a graphic of a group of police in riot gear/armor for laughs

Lenoxxx

How about:

"Guys Will Do Anything To Join"
Lambda Chi Alpha!:D

Oh their mugshots are definitely going on the back of the shirts.

Indy; the screen play
 

First, Indy has it's hands full with other matters. Be glad you're off their radar screen.

Second, I'd be happy to start drafting the screen play. We have folks in the LA area that are plugged into the business. Bet I can even work a Kenny Chesney joke into the story.

I concur with John on 2 points

#1- Dont be upset that you arent getting negative attention from the national office, sort of like dont look a gift horse in the mouth.


#2- You may have the makings of a movie idea, write down everything those guys did, it will make it easier to sell the rights and work with a screen writer

Lenoxxx

It would make a great made-for-TV movie for sure.....

I can see the ending now....how the positive influence of our brothers helped the fugitives change their ways.....

but knowing Hollywood, it will be a Going Greek/Animal House type plot.....LOL....but we will have nothing but brothers in the film doing all the acting.........Like I said earlier, Brother Klein can play the younger fugitive, Brother Bratt can play the older one...with brothers from the EO Zeta in supporting roles......

and Ryan, when I come up for Ritual in Janurary, I am gonna place an advance order for a shirt......I WANT ONE!!!!

I want one too. I think you need a "jailbreak" party...

Talking to a D U who works with LXAAlum and He says Hey, do You know Kenny Cheseny is one of Your Brothers? He mentioned LXA. Oh, I said Keg In The Closet! Yep, knew that like it was no big deal, Just another Brother!!!!:D D U's dont get out Much!

I'll do anything to Join LXA

LXA straightended Me up!

LXA Before Jail:cool:

If I was a LXA, I wouldnt be in jail.
Okey, Hokey thoughts!!!!!!!!!!;)