For almost a year, William Curry, a recent high school graduate from Vestavia Hills, Alabama, pretended to be a student at the prestigious Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and lived in multiple dorms during that time. Last week, he was caught residing in a dorm basement. According to the Stanford Daily, the university was aware of Curry and booted him from campus multiple times, but he kept returning, and that he also allegedly harassed multiple students. From the Stanford Daily:
[In January 2002,] living just a thousand or so feet away from where he was initially caught, Curry introduced himself as a transfer student from Duke University. He began to integrate himself into campus social life, creating a Tinder account and spending time with various groups of students, according to Murray House residents.
Kacey Logan '24, a former resident of the third floor of Murray House, lived alongside Curry from January to June. When Curry first showed up. Logan said they assumed Curry was just a frequent visitor.
"It seemed that he was a friend of the football players. So, anytime we saw him we let him in because it was like he knew people," Logan said.
Once it became clear that Curry was living in the dorm, students came up with new explanations, according to Logan. Since several residents had moved into Murray after the winter break, the residents assumed Curry was one of them.
Instead, Curry was squatting in Murray full-time, spending most of his days in the computer cluster or alone in the dining hall. He was aided in his deception by what several students described as a gregarious personality and poor University communication with residential staff about the removals.
