Ole Miss Student Uses Twitter To Contact OPD About Intruder

 Shelby Howe, a student at Ole Miss, is making headlines after she used Twitter to contact the Oxford Police Department about an intruder in her home this morning.

“Tweeted @OxfordPolice and they saved the day! THANKS!” Howe said in a Tweet.

According to another tweet, the intruder broke into her house, in which she shares with a roommate, and passed out on their couch. The girls were afraid to call the police in fear that the intruder would hear them so Howe direct messaged the police department on Twitter.

“Hi, I live at ———– and was woken up to some guy in my house, and me and my roommate locked the doors to our rooms and are too scared to call because he’s still here,” Howe messaged to OPD at 3:32 a.m.

Oxford Policeman, Hildon Sessums, who started the “revamp” of the department’s social media pages in the fall of 2014, read the direct message from Howe and was quick to respond.

At 3:40 a.m. OPD messaged Howe back to let her know “we are on our way.”

OPD, who host virtual ride alongs on their Twitter and Facebook pages regularly for the community, has a growing social media popularity with Oxford citizens.

“We’ve noticed since we’ve kicked off our social media that the community has responded to us and they’ve talked back,” said Major Jeff McCutchen about a virtual ride along in 2015. “We’ve learned if we’ll talk to them, they’ll talk back. Anything from tips, updates on traffic conditions — it’s just a conversation like you and I would have.”

After OPD caught the intruder, Howe was filling out a police report by 4 a.m. and has been mentioned in several news broadcasts since about her unique way of “calling” the police.

Emily Newton is a staff reporter for hottytoddy.com and the editor of Experience Oxford magazine. She can be reached at emily.newton@hottytoddy.com.

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