Selling room numbers
Selling room numbers is one of them.
Collecting information about who lives in those rooms is another.
And filming those rooms?
Definitely another.
Which is why the discovery of a group of boys operating out of Room 532 became one of those stories that students still bring up whenever the subject of room numbers comes up.
The strange part?
Room 532 wasn't supposed to be 532.
It was officially known as Room 542.
Nobody knows exactly when the number changed, or how long the boys had been using the room.
What people do know is what was found inside.
The Room Number Business
The boys had apparently been collecting room-number information from around the university.
Not just the numbers.
They also had information about the students who lived in those rooms.
Names.
Connections.
Who stayed where.
Which rooms were occupied.
And apparently, they weren't collecting the information just for fun.
They had been selling and exchanging it.
Room numbers had already become a strange little underground economy among students, but these boys had taken things considerably further.
They weren't simply telling someone where a room was.
They were building records.
Then Someone Found the Cameras
The situation became much worse when it was discovered that the group had been illegally filming the rooms they had information on.
Every room they had managed to document appeared to have been recorded.
Students who thought their rooms were private suddenly had to wonder whether someone had been watching them through a camera.
Nobody was particularly happy about that.
Understandably.
The university eventually became involved, and the boys were removed from the room.
What happened to all the information they had collected was never completely explained.
Which brings us to the strangest part.
Where Did the Information Come From?
Nobody ever publicly explained how they managed to obtain so much information in the first place.
The boys knew far more than they should have.
They knew room numbers.
They knew students.
They knew which rooms were being used.
And they somehow had enough information to create an entire collection of recordings.
The boys themselves weren't exactly helpful.
They apparently refused to say where their information came from.
And without an answer, students started creating their own theories.
Some blamed other dealers.
Some blamed students who had access to university records.
Some blamed the guards.
And, naturally, some blamed someone who wasn't even involved.
Or at least, nobody could prove he was.
The Room 532 Problem
The most amusing part of the whole story is that students still call it Room 532.
Even though the university officially calls it Room 542.
For a place where students are constantly warned not to mess with room numbers, that feels almost appropriate.
Nobody really knows what happened in that room.
Nobody knows how long the operation lasted.
And nobody knows where all that information originally came from.
But if you're ever walking around Western Ravenport University and someone starts casually asking you for your room number...
Maybe don't give it to them.
Especially if they call you Boss.
