A naval cadet is suspected of swiping a pink sorority hat from the head of a University of Georgia student early Tuesday at a fast food restaurant on the west side of Athens.
The incident was labeled a robbery in an Athens-Clarke County police report, which indicated the victim suffered minor injuries when chasing the suspect, identified in the report as a U.S. Naval Academy student.
The incident occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday at Cook Out on West Broad Street. According to the police report, that is where the 19-year-old UGA student and several of her sisters from the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority went to get milkshakes.
There, the students encountered a group consisting of the suspect, another male and two females. The males began talking to the sorority girls, especially the younger ones, according to the report. The Theta member who was later victimized told police the males became rude.
When the suspect asked the victim to give him her pink Theta cap, she told him no, and then he made a comment about taking the hat, according to the police report.
After a while, the suspect and his friends left the restaurant and climbed into a car outside. Then, according to the report, the car backed up close to the building, the suspect went back inside and grabbed the hat from the victim’s head.
The UGA student chased after the car, which sped away. She fell, suffering a scrape and bruise on her elbow and side, according to the police report.
Another student who was in the restaurant and witnessed what happened told police he recognized the suspect as a friend of someone with whom he had a class. A police officer allowed the witness to use his laptop computer to log into the UGA website to get the classmate’s name from the class roster. From there, the suspect was identified from being one of the classmates’ Facebook friends.
The suspect identifies himself as a U.S. Naval Academy cadet in his Facebook profile. On his page, the suspect has photographs of him as an academy cheerleader, and there are other photos of him on the U.S. Naval Academy Cheerleading Facebook page.
Follow Criminal Justice reporter Joe Johnson at facebook.com/JoeJohnsonABH or twitter.com/JoeJohnsonABH.