A rat that has been prowling hungrily around a Yard dorm common room for more than a week faced a brutal and sticky death earlier this week when it was caught in a trap baited with peanut butter, Weld North residents said yesterday.

After several clues pointed to the presence of an unwanted pet in Weld North 28, James H. Colopy '90 laid a trap Friday afternoon in the common room radiator. He checked the trap on Sunday and noticed something had fallen for his bait.

"At first I couldn't tell it had caught a rat, but then I noticed a crushed head. [The rat] was a foot long from head to tail," he said.

Colopy and Michael R. Gaouette '90 flipped the rodent into a garbage bag with a metal spoon, Colopy said. Then they laid it to rest on the fire escape as they knew garbage would not be collected for two days, Colopy said.

The rooming group first suspected they had a pest just after Thanksgiving when Kevin J. Riordan '90 and William Pao '90 discovered a rat hole in their bedroom. "We

It was cold-blooded murder last week at

Massachusetts Hall, and secretaries are still

trying to recover from the shock of seeing their

normally staid bosses reduced to self-proclaimed