Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
On Thursday morning, at approximately 1:45 AM, three or four security vehicles, belonging to both Public Safety and the Swarthmore Borough Police Department, were parked outside of Dana. Officers were bent under the bushes, crawling around with flash lights.
Further inquiry revealed the subject of their investigation: according to Adam Lizzi ’08, a student living in Dana Basement, “Um, there was an opossum.” Lizzi tells the Gazette that the opossum had lodged him or herself in front of the door, and wouldn’t move. “It just sat there,” he says. Owen Redgrave, Director of Public Safety, explained in an email that Public Safety was called because the opossum was sitting outside of the Dana basement door and had not moved for some time. According to Redgrave, “It eventually did.”
Joel Swanson ’10, another denizen of Dana Basement, says he slept through the entire event. When asked where he was during the opossum episode, he replied, “It was late at night…I was sleeping…” However, Lizzi was not so lucky. When asked if the event caused him any discomfort, fear, or psychological trauma, he responded “I’m damaged.”
Redgrave, however, claims that “No one was hurt or challenged by the animal.”
