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PiKA-Colorado "kidnappers" in trouble
CU student's 'kidnapping' just a frat prank
Police say joke wasted resources, cost city money
By Matt Sebastian and Pam Regensberg, Camera Staff Writers
November 13, 2002
It certainly looked like a kidnapping: A half-dozen men grabbed a student at the University of Colorado on Tuesday, bound him with duct tape and stuffed him into a Jeep Cherokee.
Two bystanders called 911; police swarmed through Boulder, stopped the Cherokee and freed sophomore Hunter Deaver, whose hands, feet and head were wrapped with tape.
Turns out it was all a joke.
"It was essentially a frat prank," CU police Lt. Tim McGraw said after the dust settled. "On initial observation, this appears to violate the university's regulations on hazing."
The head of CU's Pi Kappa Alpha chapter confirmed that a group of his fraternity's pledges grabbed Deaver from campus but said the abduction was nothing more than a practical joke.
"It was definitely not a kidnapping," chapter president Jake Sloan said. "This was blown out of proportion. There was no car accident; no one was hurt. This wasn't hazing."
Police, though, aren't laughing.
Officials say the 10:55 a.m. report of a kidnapping near CU's Eaton Humanities Building was taken very seriously — and ultimately wasted the time of eight officers, who spent nearly an hour untangling the situation.
"They need to be punished — at least pay the city and CU back for the amount of time they wasted," said Boulder police Sgt. Bob Hendry. "CU's entire work shift was involved and half of the city of Boulder's."
None of the participants were arrested or cited because Deaver, who couldn't be reached Tuesday, declined to press charges, police said.
"We wasted a lot of resources chasing them around," Hendry said. "It would be nice if they used that energy for something productive. ... It takes away from us doing legitimate things."
Police instead plan to refer the case to CU's Office of Judicial Affairs, which can punish individual students, and the Interfraternity Council, which can sanction chapters.
"Whether or not this is hazing, I can't tell you right now," said Laura Strohminger, CU's director of Greek affairs. "But the university does take hazing very seriously."
CU has dealt with a pair of high-profile Greek incidents in the last year.
In September, Phi Delta Theta shut down its CU chapter following a car accident in Boulder Canyon that seriously injured a pledge. Many of the underage students involved in the accident had been drinking prior to the crash, police reported.
And last fall, two Kappa Alpha Theta members were briefly hospitalized with alcohol poisoning after a late-night drinking event. That chapter was suspended for a semester following a lengthy police investigation.
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