PITTSBURGH -- Two college students were arrested after
police said they tried to break into Heinz Field early Sunday,
hours before the Pittsburgh Steelers were to play the
Denver Broncos.
Anand Durvasula was charged with one count of trespass and Sudeep Paul was charged with one count of conspiracy, Cmdr. Thomas
Stangrecki said.
Paul and Durvasula, both Carnegie Mellon University students,
attempted to climb the fence around the stadium at about 2 a.m. and
were caught by surveillance cameras, Police Chief Nate Harper said.
The men cooperated after being apprehended, telling police they
had tickets to the game Sunday afternoon and "decided to check
things out so they knew where to go," Harper said.
Police found a video camera and tripod in the Lexus sport
utility vehicle they were driving. Harper said Paul, a
21-year-old film student, was planning to shoot the final part of a
music video featuring the 20-year-old Durvasula at Heinz Field.
"We don't know exactly what their intentions were," Harper
said. He added that if the men were trying to locate their seats,
"they really could have gone online ... versus coming over and
trying to make entry into the stadium."
The pair opened an exterior door at one of the stadium gates,
but did not go inside, Harper said. They then continued walking
around the stadium, carrying a folding chair. They returned to the
gate and Durvasula stepped on the chair and began climbing the
fence when stadium security and police arrived, Harper said.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force -- made up of the FBI, city and
Allegheny County police, and the county sheriff's office --
conducted a sweep of the stadium with bomb-detecting dogs and found
no explosives, Harper said.
The men were being questioned by the terrorism task force, and
Harper said the investigation was continuing. Police have added
security at the stadium for the 4:15 p.m. game.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league was notified about the
incident.
"From all we're being told, it's nothing to be concerned
about," Aiello said.
Harper said investigators were taking the matter seriously. It
was the second security issue involving NFL stadiums in recent
weeks.
Last month, a 21-year-old grocery store clerk was accused of
posting a message on the Internet saying that radioactive "dirty
bombs" would be detonated at seven football stadiums. Jake J.
Brahm, of Wauwatosa, Wis., admitted posting the same threat about
40 times on various Web sites, authorities said.
He was charged with making a terrorist threat over the Internet.