A report of an assault on the Troy University campus Thursday night led to the University Police Department sending out an SOS message to the students, urging them to maintain safety precautions.

“There was a guy in the quad who came running up to a female and told her to come to him,” said Troy University Police Chief John McCall. “She hosed him down with a can of mace. He startled the girl, and she responded.”

The incident occurred at approximately 9:50 p.m. Thursday on the Shackleford Quad and was reported as an assault third degree.

While no harm or injury came from the incident, McCall said that it was best to send out a warning, allowing students to be aware of the incident and to take caution.

“We don’t know what his intentions were,” McCall said. “We are assuming the worst because it is better to err on the side of caution and assume he was up to no good. We would like to think it was nothing bad, but we sent a message to be cautious.”

The University Police Department made efforts to check video footage, searching for the male that approached the female, but nothing was revealed.

“We checked all our security footage, but we didn’t see anything on the cameras,” McCall said.

McCall said that the University Police Department is emphasizing the safety precautions that they regularly tell the student body.

He said an important caution to take is to walk in pairs or groups; however, if a student must walk alone, he encourages the student to have a cell phone and be ready to call 9-1-1 if needed. He also said that students should always alert another person where he or she is going and to let them know of the estimated arrival time.

“It’s just better to be cautious because we don’t know what that young man’s intentions were,” McCall said.

With the arrival of game day weekend, McCall said the University Police Department has taken extra precautions, aware of the extra numbers of people that will be present on the Troy University campus.

“We took some extra precautions by putting out extra lighting in the quad areas and the darker areas that will be up all weekend,” McCall said.