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GREENSBORO  — A bloody trail from a bungled burglary led UNCG to close the Curry Building on Friday morning as police investigated — and workers cleaned up — the mess.

Dozens of classes were canceled, and routines were disrupted for hundreds of people.

Housekeepers who arrived for work at 5 a.m. Friday discovered that glass had been broken out of a back door to the building at 1109 Spring Garden St., and they called police, UNCG Police Chief Jamie Herring said.

Officers found a pool of blood around the broken glass and a smeared trail of blood leading up a hallway.

“The officers went in and found a significant amount of blood smeared throughout the building,” Herring said. “A
K-9 unit was called in and found the trail leading away from the building.”

Herring believes that the burglar grabbed a towel or blanket from one of the rooms to stop the bleeding.

The blood trail ended and then resumed, heading out of the building and west on Spring Garden Street.

Nothing was stolen from the building, which houses the School of Education and hosts other classes. No other damage was reported.

No arrests had been made by Friday evening.

The building isn’t equipped with surveillance cameras, Herring said, although investigators are reviewing footage from nearby areas.

University officials sent out a campus-wide alert to notify students and faculty that the building was closed until noon.
Workers trained to clean up biohazards used pressure washers and mops to sanitize the building.

Professor Brian Sevier and doctoral student Toni Williams said they arrived for work at 7 a.m., walked inside and noticed the building was unusually dark.

As they prepped to teach their education courses, a police officer and a phone call from a student alerted them to the situation.

“(Sevier) was running up the stairs to get me, and I was running down the hall to tell him — I was like, 'We’ve got to go! We’ve got to get out!’” Williams said.

“We were actually inside when they put the tape up on the doors,” Sevier said.

Sevier and Williams were scheduled to teach classes that meet only once a week, so they lost a day packed with material that they’ll have to fit in later.

By 10:30 a.m., police and faculty were still turning away rain-soaked students who were unaware of what had happened in the building.

“It’s throwing a curve ball into my day,” said freshman Kenny Mann, who was turned away when he showed up for an 11 a.m. communications class, where he was scheduled to take an exam.

The ordeal also forced the university’s day care to close, leaving parents to find alternate arrangements for about 40 children until the center opened at noon.

About a third of the children arrived for the noon opening, said Sharon Mims, director of the child care education program.
The burglar was unable to get into the day care, but the area was cleaned regardless, Mims said.

Anyone with information about the break-in can call UNCG police at 334-5963.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com