Eight open cases of telephone harassment involving NIU student victims were closed when University Police charged a resident of the south suburbs in the incidents.

Scott A. Vanwie, 29, Berwyn, turned himself in to UP Det. Deborrah Pettit Friday after she filed six charges of telephone harassment against him.

The incidents began in January or February when Vanwie began calling a woman who lived in an NIU residence hall that he knew vaguely, Pettit said. Later, he began calling other NIU students who lived on campus using random combinations of numbers, she said.

Vanwie would hang up if a man answered the telephone. But if a woman answered, he often would pretend to know her and try to get her to talk to him while he allegedly masturbated, Pettit said.

“If you don’t know who you are talking to, don’t talk to them,” Pettit said.

Often victims of telephone harassment don’t take the incidents seriously, she said. “Don’t treat it like a game. Hang up or tell that person you don’t want to talk to them,” she said.

Victims described Vanwie, who lives with his parents and works part-time in construction, as having a low voice and being soft-spoken, Pettit said.

Although Vanwie occasionally would mention to his victim that he was masturbating, many times he would simply call and hang up the telephone without speaking, she said.