For the first time since 2000, the one-time Kappa Sig fraternity house has seen some action.
Louis-David Lord '08 and Jacob Murray '08 broke into the empty College building, now known as Lancaster House, on November 9 in the early hours of the morning.
"[The break-in] was discovered by the Security officer on patrol," Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols said.
"As with any situation where there's an apparent crime in progress in a building, our officer called the police. It was the right thing to do," he said.
When the Brunswick Police Department arrived, they found the ladder of the second-story fire escape pulled down to the ground and a black bag at the base of the ladder. Inside, two male figures could be seen through a second story window.
"Our officers set up a perimeter around the building and brought in a K-9 unit from the Sagadahoc Sheriff's Office," Commander Richard Desjardins said. "The suspects were taken into custody without incident."
The suspects were both charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor offense. Murray was also charged with criminal mischief. The charge of criminal mischief was issued to Murray since it appeared to be he, not Lord, who did actual damage to the building in trying to find a way inside. This charge was determined based on interviews with the suspects.
According to Desjardins, the suspects were noticeably intoxicated at the time of arrest.
Lord and Murray's arraignment is scheduled for December 20 at the West Bath District Court, at which time they will be formally charged and asked to issue a plea.
Sentences for misdemeanor crimes can be up to one year in a county facility or a $1,000 fine. The District Attorney's office was unavailable for comment.
"What we did was indeed stupid and illegal, yet our only intentions were to check out the house and take pictures," Lord said.
"It's a pretty cool house, with plenty of motion sensors, but breaking inside it wasn't worth all the trouble we got ourselves into."
"I think it's pretty ironic that the house serves as a training site for the K-9 unit dogs, which probably explains why they took 12 seconds to find us," Lord added.
"The dog was the scariest part," Murray agreed.
Desjardins could not confirm whether or not Lancaster House had been used to train K-9 units in the past. Brunswick Police Department does not employ a K-9 unit at this time, but it does "use many buildings on College property to do training," according to Desjardins.
This was not the first time this year that Bowdoin students have been taken into custody by the Brunswick Police Department.
"We've had some arrests, some criminal summonses issued to Bowdoin students this year. We've had some significant events, like driving under the influence?troubling events, that we don't like to see," Desjardins said.
"When you have a group of people living that close together and you add alcohol, there's going to be trouble," he said.