Police Investigating Woman’s Lost Nights

An Orange Coast College student who last remembers unlocking her car on campus Monday night awoke the next morning in a dumpster in Santa Ana, police said Thursday.

The same woman, who was not identified, had reported a similar incident to police last month.

The Costa Mesa resident, in her 30s, told police she had unlocked her car in the lot north of the college’s track and field complex at 9:30 p.m.

“The next thing she knew, she woke up and found herself in a dumpster in Santa Ana,” said Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Mike Millington. Police said her car is missing.

Millington said detectives are not dismissing the woman’s claims and they are working on leads in the first alleged incident. He declined to elaborate.

The woman told police the first incident happened off-campus in July, Millington said. She doesn’t remember what happened in either case, and there were no signs that she was molested or assaulted, he said.

On Thursday morning, Orange Coast College’s Crisis Alert Team met to discuss the police report.

“It’s sort of a strange report, and we haven’t confirmed if the woman is a student, since we don’t know her name,” said Jim Carnett, the college’s director of community relations.

“It was frankly a somewhat confusing episode, but we’ve decided that any type of a report that we receive from the Police Department, we’re taking it seriously,” he said.

The Crisis Alert Team was created after four reported assaults on women that rocked the campus during the spring semester.

Administrators were criticized for not reporting Jan. 28 and March 11 incidents to students until March 21. The other attacks were on Feb. 13 and April 30.