Three ISU students sharing an off-campus apartment were having friends over during the Friday night of Veishea weekend when they heard a knock on the door at about 8 p.m. Two uniformed security officers entered their apartment at 4733 Toronto St. #207 and told them to keep down the noise.

That was just the beginning of what tenants Linda Anderson, Becky Rydberg and Sarah Whiteley said became a three-hour ordeal.

Anderson, junior in journalism and mass communication, Rydberg, senior in marketing, and Whiteley, junior in pre-veterinary medicine, said a security firm hired by their landlord, Randall Corporation, treated them with very little respect during Veishea weekend.

“They said our party was getting out of control and that we had to turn down the music and keep it under control,” Anderson said.

She said the nine people in the three-bedroom apartment obliged, turning down their music and continuing to play cards, as they had been before the interruption.

“Later, a few more people came in, and we had to turn the music back up because we could barely hear it,” Anderson said. She estimated by then, the group had grown to about 15 people.

“Then, at about 9:30 [p.m.] or 10 [p.m.], the guards came back and said we were still being too loud,” she said.

Anderson said the guards claimed the tenants had broken their lease agreement with Randall Corporation, and everybody in the apartment, including the tenants, would be required to leave immediately.

Sean Cunningham, one of the guests at the apartment and a Randall tenant himself, said the guards also insisted they had been by the apartment the night before to warn the tenants.

“We weren’t even here Thursday night,” Anderson said. “One of my roommates and I were working, and my other roommate was signed in at the Lied Rec Center.”

Randall Corporation officials denied to comment, refused to name the security firm hired and would not even confirm that guards were hired at all.

But the tenants said the security officers told them they were employed by the landlord.

“We were just having a good time with friends, like we usually do every weekend,” said Cunningham, junior in animal science.

Anderson said the guards claimed they were from a security firm in Des Moines and had been hired by Randall Corporation to patrol the hallways during Veishea.

The guards then told the group that they would call the Ames Police Department if the students did not leave the apartment, she said.

“We felt our rights were being violated, so we called the police on them,” she said.

When the police arrived, the security guards had already left, she said.

“They didn’t even stay around to tell their side of the story,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if it was because they knew they were wrong or what.”

Cunningham said after listening to the story, the police agreed that the guards had overstepped their boundaries.

“The police said they agreed that the tenants’ rights were being violated,” he said.

Anderson said she is upset about the incident and also about when she noticed guards hanging out in the parking lot outside her building again on Saturday night.

“I just feel like I’m living with my parents,” she said. “I am not happy at all. I will never rent anything from Randall Corporation again.”

University and city officials said they provided no incentive for private landlords to step up security during Veishea weekend.

“Those are off-campus landlords. We don’t get into that,” said Thomas Hill, vice president for Student Affairs. “They run their property the way they see fit.”

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, said he didn’t know anyone affiliated with the university who had suggested landlords hire security during the weekend.

“I’m not aware of anyone at the university who would suggest to private property owners that they should hire extra security,” he said. “It sounds like a matter between landlord and tenant that wouldn’t have anything to do with the university.”

Clare Bills, city public relations officer, said city officials had never suggested anything to landlords, either.

“The city does have regulations for parties, like if someone is planning to have a keg party, but no one from the city suggested extra security during Veishea,” she said.

Hill said, in fact, the university has services the students could employ to settle the situation, such as Student Legal Services.

“If what these students are saying is true, we would need to follow up on it and be able to determine whether there is anything we can do,” he said. “We will be as helpful to students as the law will allow us to be. That’s what that legal office is there for, to help people with those types of problems.”