A man has been accused of breaking onto a university campus and pretended to be a student to live out a fantasy - and allegedly managed to do it four times in a row after he learned how to exploit the system. Stanford University was home to Reese Witherspoon and Tiger Woods, and it also unwittingly hosted William Curry, 20, for almost a year, since 2021, reports claim.
Curry apparently loved the idea of being a Stanford student and he wasn't going to let grades, admission boards, or funding stand in his way. Instead, he allegedly broke into dorms and pretended to be enrolled at the prestigious establishment. Local reports say that he once pretended to be an athlete who had won a scholarship, and when he was caught sleeping in a basement he told security guards that he was a student who'd been temporarily rehomed due to flooding.
The real-life Mr Ripley was caught on the campus and given a stay-away order, but he's had the same treatment three times before and now Theo Baker, the student journalist who first broke the story, believes that Curry could return once again.
According to university officials, he was found to have been living in campus dormitories for nearly 10 months, the LA Times reports.
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Speaking to the Mirror, Theo said: "What's really interesting is that his MO changed every time.
"He was taking advantage of the administration, the university told us that there was no widespread communication to make students and staff aware of William Curry, which meant that people were not on the lookout for someone impersonating a student.
"He told people that he was a resident escaping flooding in another dorm and he was there for temporary housing, students had no reason to not believe him.
"People were acting on good faith, that's how he was able to get away with it for so long."
Curry was first escorted from campus in the Autumn of 2021 after taking up residence in Yost House, as Theo reported in the Stanford Daily.
A university spokesperson told the Statesman Journal that Curry was first reported to campus security in December 2021, and that officicials issued him multiple stay-away letters,.
"The unique aspects of Mr. Curry’s persistence and ability to integrate himself with our student community has made it clear that gaps exist in those protocols,” the spokesman admitted. "We will immediately undertake a review to ensure our procedures do not allow for this type of incident to happen again.”
Students claim that he lived there for several months before being caught, and a short while later he was allegedly found living in a room in the nearby Roble Hall.
He stayed there throughout the winter break but was eventually caught by campus security guards, but he told them that he was a homeless person who was trying to escape the rain, according to reports.
The security guards, unaware of the incident of Curry pretending to be a student just weeks earlier, had no reason to disbelieve him and let him go.
Then, a week later, Curry allegedly moved into Murray House, another block of nearby student accommodation, with a new story.
Initially, students assumed he was a visitor, and one resident said that "it was like he knew people" as Curry would socialise with the group.
Eventually, they assumed that he was a student who had moved into the block but in reality Curry was allegedly there illegally, squatting in the computer room or sitting in the dining hall.
One student, Cayden Luby, said: "It just seemed very normal. Like I [thought], he must live on the second floor because I knew he was not on the first floor. And I knew he didn't live on the third floor, so I thought he must live on the second floor.
"And then I found out that he didn't live on the second floor [because] we went down there and we checked all the names on the doors and [we asked him], you don't live here? Like, why are you messing with us?"
Whenever a student managed to corner Curry, he would come up with a new story to cover his tracks, and some said he was aided by his 'gregarious' personality.
Theo added: "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 ingratiate himself into campus social life, creating a Tinder account and spending time with various groups of students, according to Murray House residents.
"He stayed in Murray House for months, he left after suspicion was raised and went to East house, literally next door, and apparently according to our sources there was a girl who was away for a weekend and he broke into her dorm room and when she came back she found him there.
"He was removed again from East, then at the beginning of this year he went back to East as it had new staff, so they didn't know him and they weren't aware he had just been kicked out before the summer break.
"He stayed there for about a week before staff noticed, according to residents."
A uni spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Mauk that Curry had been on campus several times since December 2021 - and was cited for violating the law when he was found living in a dorm.
And the university's Department of Public Safety had attempted several times to find Curry and hand over a letter warning him to sty away from the campus.
But officials were reportedly unable to locate him until his most recent incident on October 27, when he was given the letter.
The spokesperson also confirmed that while some staff in dorms where he had been spotted were notified, there hadn't been a broader message about him to all Stanford residences.
Theo managed to speak to Curry and asked him why he had pretended to be a student, but says he didn't give a satisfactory answer.
Theo continued: "I talked to him for a while, I will say that it's hard to put together a concrete answer - I'm not even sure that he has one.
"My impression is that he spent most of his time socialising with other students and he seemed to want to be part of the campus.
"He was fixated on Stanford for quite a while, he's been saying for at least three years he was recruited to Stanford - according to a student who went to high school with him. There's a lingering question as to why and what he was getting out of it.
"Obviously people have told us they have questions about his mental health because of the details of the case, that's not something we can confirm or deny. It's definitely confusing.
"I asked him whether he was going to classes and he said, 'not really', he said he was trying to live the 'normal Stanford life', meeting other students, socialising.
"I wouldn't suspect that education was his priority, it certainly could have been but I'd be confused by that as he wasn't going to classes - if you were trying to get an education the classes would be a substantial part of that."
Friends close to Curry said that he would drink and gamble with other students, and that "ingratiated" him with the group until people "thought of him as their friend".
Theo continued: "Many of the things he told us during our interview were lies, I had the facts in front of me, I knew what was a lie and what wasn't - I was able to see in real-time how he got away with this.
"He is a convincing con artist, he gives off the impression of an earnest person - I do know that multiple things he told us during the interview were false.
"He said he made his money by trading crypto and playing poker, but I didn't see any evidence of that, and he said he had an apartment in Palo Alto.
"This has been a story of many twists and turns, I don't think we expected it to be the story it's become now.
"The pattern that happened when he was taken away and given a stay away order, that's already happened four times - if it wasn't for this team of reporters it may have happened again.
"He refused to say he wouldn't do it again, and he wouldn't tell us his plans for the future, he could try again - he definitely would have if the stories hadn't broken and he probably would have succeeded.
"He's indefatigable, when he was kicked off by a deputy he had broken into a room in Roble Hall, and a week later he showed up less than 1,000ft away in another dorm under another identity, he used variations on a theme - he always used his accurate name and said where he was from, Birmingham Alabama - according to the two dozen residents we spoke to.
"One time he said he was a transfer student from Duke University, this year he was telling people that he was a recruit for the track and field team.
"The Daily reviewed records from his times and he was significantly off the pace.
"One student said he never explicitly said he was recruited, just that he was implying it. Over a dozen students said he told them that he was recruited for track and field.
"The future definitely will be interesting, it's clear enough that Curry is a clever guy just from how he was able to play off these bureaucratic inefficiencies so many times and get into dorms."
Stanford University has been contacted for comment.
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