BYU-Idaho students warned for nailing dead rabbit in home

REXBURG, Idaho – Four male college students who broke into a female student’s apartment, nailed a dead rabbit to the wall, left an offensive message and stole a painting have been given a warning, police in eastern Idaho said.

Rexburg Police Captain Randy Lewis said the four Brigham Young University-Idaho students meant no harm by their actions on Wednesday.

“They wanted to play a prank,” Lewis told the Standard Journal. “The rabbit was there when she came in. She was upset, of course.”

Lewis said police located the four students and told them potential charges could include unlawful entry and theft, but no arrests were made or charges filed.

Brett Crandall, BYU-Idaho’s manager for Media Relations and Campus Communication, didn’t return a call from the Associated Press on Monday.

BYU-Idaho is a four-year, private university affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has an enrollment of about 16,000 students at its 400-acre, Rexburg, Idaho, campus.

The school, unlike Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, doesn’t participate in major college sports, with students instead participating in intramural activities.

Police say the incident took place off campus at NorthPoint Apartments, which offers student housing and on its website says its “highest priority is the continual security and well-being of the residents of our men’s and women’s apartments.”

The general manager didn’t immediately return a call from the AP on Monday.

Crandall didn’t respond to several emailed questions from the AP, including whether the school was investigating or if female students might feel less safe that such an intrusion as reported by police could occur without consequences.

“It takes up our time where we could be doing something else,” Lewis, the police captain, told the newspaper. “It was just nonsense. It affects the people (victims) who don’t know what’s going on. It affects them emotionally.”

Last week in Utah, that state’s Department of Public Safety launched an investigation into whether Brigham Young University’s police department is appropriately sharing sexual assault case information after a barrage of recent complaints over the school’s practice of opening honor code investigations into students after they report being sexually assaulted.

Crandall didn’t respond to an emailed question about whether an honor code violation occurred at NorthPoint Apartments.