A UW-Madison student is facing felony charges of criminal damage to property after police allege he intentionally set off the sprinkler system in the University House Towers April 4.
According to a criminal complaint filed Monday video cameras in the building at 502 N. Frances St. caught Max Korman, 18, of Northbrook, Ill., putting something on or near the hallway ceiling of the eighth floor, which he resided on, around 1:43 a.m. Seconds later, the fire alarms went off and water gushed down the hallway while Korman returned to his apartment.
Korman is also charged with misdemeanor interference with firefighting equipment. Madison Police Department Sgt. Lori Schalecki said police take incidents like this seriously because of the headaches it causes residents and landlords alike.
A lot of people don't maintain renter's insurance so they may run into the fact that their property is not going to get replaced if it's been damaged by the water,"" Schalecki said.
Towers director of leasing Jermaine Butler estimated the building's water damage to be between $15,000 and $20,000, according to the complaint. Urban Outfitters, located on the street level of the same building as Towers, experienced flooding as a result of the sprinklers that caused $5,325 in damaged merchandise, store manager William Lesniak told police in the complaint.
UW-Madison freshman and Towers resident Anna Engstrom said the sprinklers caused a huge middle-of-the-night disturbance for the building's 400 residents, who were evacuated when the fire alarms went off.
""We were displaced for four hours,"" Engstrom said.
""I had to work at 7:30 and we didn't get back until 5:30, so I only got like an hour of sleep.""
If convicted, Korman faces up to three years and six months in jail for the felony charge and up to nine months in prison for the misdemeanor charge or fines of $10,000.
