2 charged with trying to break into Heinz Field
PITTSBURGH — Two college students are facing criminal charges after police said they tried to break into Heinz Field early Sunday.
Paul Sudeep, 21, and Anand Durvasula, 20, both Carnegie Mellon University students, attempted to climb the fence around the stadium at about 2 a.m. and were caught by surveillance cameras, Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper said.
The men were cooperative when apprehended, telling police they had tickets to Sunday afternoon's Pittsburgh Steelers game and "decided to check things out so they knew where to go," Harper said.
Durvasula was charged with one count of trespass and Sudeep was charged with one count of conspiracy, Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said.
Police found a video camera and tripod in the Lexus sport utility vehicle they were driving. Harper said Sudeep, a film student, was planning to film the final part of a music video featuring Durvasula at Heinz Field.
"We don't know exactly what their intentions were," Harper said. But he added that if the men were trying to figure out where their seats were, "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.
