Woman arrested for trespassing after repeatedly hiding in suitcase to visit boyfriend

Aisea Poulivaati and other workers at a downtown Portland apartment complex wondered for months what a man kept lugging around in a pink rolling suitcase. "We heard there may have been a person in there," said Poulivaati, a courtesy desk clerk at the 333 Oak Apartments. "But it's not like we could have proven that."

On Monday afternoon, a caller told police that a man kidnapped a woman, put her in a pink suitcase and took it into the apartments. Officers shared the witness’s description with the building manager, who said it might be resident Curtis T. Lowe, 52. Lowe denied knowing anything about a woman in a suitcase, said a police report.



But officers searched the apartment. They found a pink suitcase in the living room and Kola J. McGrath, 50, in the closet. The woman, described by police as 5-foot-6 and 96 pounds, told officers she had not been kidnapped. Instead, she was hiding in the suitcase because she had been banned from the apartment complex since April 2011.

Workers at the complex said McGrath and Lowe were in a relationship. But she was banned after breaking a fire extinguisher case with her purse while arguing with him, Poulivaati said. She also had been warned about violating the building's visitation policy. McGrath was arrested and booked into Multnomah County Jail on a trespassing count. She has since been released. “I guess you could call it creative,” said Poulivaati.

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