Unknown Fugitives That lived in the Lambda Chi Alpha House In Knoxville

Ryan400z · #1 11-12-2005, 02:37 AM

Guys you won't believe this crap. We had 2 fugitives living in our fraternity house over the summer and befriending the chapter that 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 because of 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.
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 monday 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/showarti...articleid=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.

ZetaPhi708 · #2 11-12-2005, 02:40 AM

Damn Ryan, glad you guys are ok. I saw the local news report tonight about it but it did not say anything about your chapter involved.

Sending you a private message.

lifesaver · #3 11-12-2005, 03:53 AM

How random. Glad you all werent hurt or too taken advantage of (they could have used your info to get new credit cards and such). Sucks when people take advantage of our brothers generosity. Especially in an open system like we (non-NPHC) tend to have. People think fraternities and sororities are these very closed systems where people are very suspicious of individuals on the outside. Its been my experience that its just the opposite. All someone needs to 'perp' is some knowledge of the org and they could get away with a lot. It wouldnt be forever, because that stuff always comes out - inconsistancies and such. This is where the NPHC groups kick our asses. NPHC members are super damn skeptical of people claiming to be members that havent been verified. They also have a better network of verifying that people really are who they say they are. Dont know why this is, but its something we maybe should look at emulating.... just a thought.

sdbeta1 · #4 11-12-2005, 04:32 AM

Nobody bothered to ask them for a grip, form of greeting, or anything of that sort? I think that is one of the first things I would do, especially before they began living with me.

PM_Mama00 · #5 11-12-2005, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sdbeta1
Nobody bothered to ask them for a grip, form of greeting, or anything of that sort? I think that is one of the first things I would do, especially before they began living with me.

While this is true, it would have been kinda hard to not trust someone who said they were brothers/sisters from a chapter hit by Katrina. I know we probably wouldn't think about it, but then again our HQ would probably here about it and say something if it didn't seem right.

DeltAlum · #6 11-12-2005, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PM_Mama00
While this is true, it would have been kinda hard to not trust someone who said they were brothers/sisters from a chapter hit by Katrina. I know we probably wouldn't think about it, but then again our HQ would probably here about it and say something if it didn't seem right.

Yeah, it looks like they knew all the right buttons to push to not be questioned.

Tom Earp · #7 11-12-2005, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Yeah, it looks like they knew all the right buttons to push to not be questioned.

As lifesave said, Greeks are really more open than some people think.

If some one comes in with a good enough story most of us would beleive them. I lost My card, it has been so long sing had to use signs to get recognized.

I dont remember all of mine haing been away from it so long. We do care about not only Our Brothers and Sisters, but others as well or We would not do all of the Philanthropys taht We do.

JonInKC · #8 11-12-2005, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sdbeta1
Nobody bothered to ask them for a grip, form of greeting, or anything of that sort? I think that is one of the first things I would do, especially before they began living with me.

My sentiments exactly...

Ryan400z · #9 11-13-2005, 06:21 PM

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.

Tom Earp · #10 11-13-2005, 06:42 PM

Ryan, I think You just said it all!

Heck whe I was a GA in 2005, I Had to remember the Grip. We were all practicing it!

About the only 0ne there Older than Me Was George S!!!!

Drove some People Nuts Trying to figure out Why We Talked a Lot!

We are Much More open than some think!

Sori · #11 11-14-2005, 03:44 AM

This is why we all have HQ's we can call to check people out with when they show up on our doorstep.

lifesaver · #12 11-22-2005, 02:18 PM

This was on The Today Show this AM. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer interviewed the chapter president in front of the chapter house.

The president said he did call the HQ and ask about their membership when their stories started changing and such.

HQ had no record of them on file.

madmax · #13 11-22-2005, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sori
This is why we all have HQ's we can call to check people out with when they show up on our doorstep.

We do the same thing. A few months ago a couple of guys showed up at are house claiming to be refuges from Katrina. Our active brothers called the HQ to check them out. Unfortunately nobody was at the HQ office becuase it was Friday night. It was raining so we gave the guys a blue tarp for shelter and let them camp out behind our house. They tied the tarp to the garage and the neighboring dumpster. They slept their until Monday morning when we were able to confirm their membership. Nobody can accuse us of being bad hosts.

lifesaver · #14 11-22-2005, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by madmax
We do the same thing. A few months ago a couple of guys showed up at are house claiming to be refuges from Katrina. Our active brothers called the HQ to check them out. Unfortunately nobody was at the HQ office becuase it was Friday night. It was raining so we gave the guys a blue tarp for shelter and let them camp out behind our house. They tied the tarp to the garage and the neighboring dumpster. They slept their until Monday morning when we were able to confirm their membership. Nobody can accuse us of being bad hosts.

Wow. With our org, we have membership cards. If someone rolled up, had a membership card in their name, that matched their ID, and could describe the ritual and secret meanings, then that would be good enough for me for the weekend. I have a few staffers cell phone numbers and I am sure they could have checked for us over the weekend, considering the circumstances.

lifesaver · #15 11-22-2005, 08:37 PM

Just found a link, sans the interview with Katie and Matt...

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=0...100f&f=copy

Theres a commercial you have to watch first.