The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for more information.
Heading toward the Bruin Bear around 11 p.m. wearing non-UCLA clothing, the student security guards thought I was anything but a Daily Bruin Sports editor.
“Before we started to talk to you, we thought you were the sketchiest thing of the night,” said Leah Falcon, a second-year sociology student and member of the Bruin Bear Security Force on Wednesday night.
Following its routine, the Bruin Bear Security Force – a group organized by the UCLA Rally Committee to protect the Bruin Bear during USC rivalry week – asked me for my BruinCard. I willingly obliged.
After my BruinCard was investigated and validated, the threat was put to rest and the security force members went back to their home base of sleeping bags and foldable chairs outside J.D. Morgan Center.
But just under an hour later, a real threat arose when rumor surfaced that there was a group of 15-20 people, clad in red, running suspiciously around the UCLA campus.
According to undeclared second-year security force member James Reed, this was the first legitimate threat of a prank all week, after USC’s premature spray-painting of the unprotected Bruin Bear last Thursday.
Reed, in his second year on the Bruin Bear Security Force, is a veteran. While on bear watch last year, he chased a group of sprinting USC students down Bruin Walk until UCPD came to completely extinguish the threat.
On Wednesday night, Reed was a bit delirious after staying up for nearly 72 straight hours on Bear watch, but not visibly flustered. He calmly picked up his walkie-talkie, and contacted fifth-year mechanical engineering student and fellow security force member Adam Stromland, who was out scouring the campus in search of the potential USC imposters.
“What’s going on out there?” said Reed.
“They’re heading towards the Math Sciences Building,” said Stromland on the other line.
“If they’re heading towards (the Math Sciences Building), they’re probably from USC,” Reed replied. “There’s nothing in (the Math Sciences Building).”
Meanwhile, an unidentified girl approached Reed with a box of candy, asking if he’d like to buy Snickers bars to help her raise money for her theater company.
“We’re actually in the middle of a very serious situation,” responded Reed in a sincere-yet-deadpan manner.
Moments later, Reed was still wondering about the status of the red-shirted people running around on the southeast end of campus. His Motorola walkie-talkies weren’t helping the cause.
“I can’t hear anything on the other line,” Reed said.
“If there was a walkie-talkie app, that would make a killing,” I replied.
About 10 minutes later, Stromland and five other Bruin Bear Security Force members returned to home base at the Bruin Bear and said that they had lost track of the suspicious group in the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Gardens. One of those members – first-year business economics student Kyle Grozen – said that he and his security force crew had actually confronted the group of potential USC allies outside of Franz Hall, asking them for their BruinCards.
“(One) guy walked up to me and tried to show me something, before a different one pulled him back. And he pulled out some card, I couldn’t see what it was,” Grozen said. “Then a different guy made a move towards me, actually aggressively, saying, ‘Why are you trying to cause trouble, man?'”
Moments after Grozen and his fellow Bruin protectors had assured the opposing group that they meant no harm, the group of suspects ran away toward the botanical gardens. Grozan said he called UCPD, but it had yet to show up.
After conferring for about 15 minutes, the Bruin protectors were ready to go out and seek out the troublemakers again at 12:55 a.m.
“I might die, but my phone is OK. I’m at 55 percent,” Grozen said.
But that worry was put to rest just five minutes later when a UCPD car and officer came through Bruin Walk, with the group of interest trailing behind. As it turned out, their red clothes were of no greater symbolic significance than a red herring.
They were UCLA students.
Walking back home at 2 a.m., I thought to myself how this complicated night could be a foretaste of Saturday’s game. In one of their biggest games of the season against the crosstown Trojans, the biggest threat to the Bruins could be themselves.
Correction: The Bruin Bear Security was organized by the UCLA Rally Committee not The Den.