Issue date: 12/13/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Sara Norgon

Midnight cowboy

Sunday, Oct. 28

At 1:39 a.m. an officer received a phone call from an RA in Murray Hall who said there was a very drunk man who had urinated on the floor in the lobby.

The RA said the man ran away, but he was still somewhere in the building.

The officer met with several RAs in the lobby who told him the man signed a friend in earlier and they identified the man by the security log.

They told the officer the man was wearing a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat as a Halloween costume.

While the officer was in the lobby, the cowboy escaped out a back door, which sounded an alarm.

The cowboy ran into the woods behind Murray.

Later, the officer checked the man's room, but he wasn't there. The officer left the building and told the RA to call if the man returned.

At 6:45 p.m., the man called University Police and met with the officer.

The man admitted to being drunk and urinating in the building.

When he escaped out the back, he said he ran into the woods and climbed a tree. After that he spent the night in a friend's room.The officer issued the man a citation for improper deposit of human waste.


Have a nice trip?

Saturday, Sept. 15

At 1:15 a.m., an officer saw a man walking on the 100 block of Garfield Avenue stop and unzip his pants as if to urinate.

As the officer approached him, the man looked at the officer and took off running. As the officer followed, he noticed the man was having a hard time running as he struggled with his pants and his unlaced shoes.

The officer told the man he was a police officer and told him to stop running. The man continued running up a slope adjacent to the sidewalk in front of the Ecumenical Religious Center.

At this point, the man fell forward onto the ground. The officer handcuffed the man.

He asked him why he was running, and the man said he didn't want to disappoint his father, the deputy sheriff. The officer later determined that the deputy sheriff was not the man's father.

The man was issued citations for underage drinking, first offense and resisting an officer. He later submitted to a preliminary breath test, and registered a 0.22 reading.


The hemp necklace

Friday, Oct. 12

At 12:43 a.m., an officer responded to a drug case in Murray Hall. The officer arrived and spoke with an RA who said he went to the room because of a complaint of loud noise. When the RA entered the room, five people were there and one of them was holding a pipe, but quickly hid it when the RA came in.

The RA also said there was a fan on in the room and there were drier sheets attached to it as well as a towel at the base of the room's door. The officer thought the occupants had been smoking marijuana.

The officer went to the room and found the residents in the hallway. The officer asked the two women if they lived in the room and they said yes, and gave the officer permission to enter.

There were two men inside. They, along with the women, denied smoking marijuana. The officer didn't smell any marijuana, but noticed all the occupants had bloodshot eyes.

The women gave the officer permission to search the room. Another officer arrived and found a multi-colored glass pipe attached to a hemp necklace and a marijuana grinder in one woman's guitar case.

The pipe appeared unused but there were small green flakes in the grinder that smelled like raw marijuana.

The woman who owned the guitar case admitted the pipe and grinder were hers. The officer issued her a citation for possession of drug paraphernalia.

The officer talked with the woman and she said she wasn't smoking marijuana, but she was showing the two men the hemp necklace because her roommate made it.

The RA must have seen the pipe attached to the necklace, she said, and believed they were smoking marijuana.


Something seems squirrely ...

Sunday, Oct. 14

At 9:56 a.m., an officer responded to a report of a squirrel acting strangely near the entrance to Putnam Hall.

The officers met with an RA and a woman who said the squirrel was acting as if it were choking. The animal did not move as the officer walked up to it.

The officer asked the man what he thought the officer should do about a choking squirrel, and the man said the officer should call animal control.

After telling the man the animal did not look sick or aggressive, the officer noticed the squirrel looked old, which was "not to be a reason to dispatch it."

As the officer moved closer, the squirrel moved away, which the officer considered to be normal. Eventually the animal ran away toward Putnam Drive.


Don't laser me, bro!

Wednesday, Nov. 14

At 7 p.m., an officer finishing up a traffic stop in the Bridgman Hall parking lot noticed a laser pointer being pointed at him.

The laser seemed to be coming from near Oakridge Hall, but after searching the area, the officer couldn't find its source.

After contacting a University Police sergeant, the officer wrote a report to document the incident because the person who had pointed the laser at the officer had violated state law for intentionally using a laser pointer on a correctional or law enforcement officer.


American Idle

Wednesday, Oct. 31

At 10:53 a.m., a University Police sergeant responded to a report of a vehicle in the Oak Ridge parking lot that had been running since the day before.

The officer found the car with its engine running but no key in the ignition. Using the vehicle's license plate number, he found its registration information and contacted the owner.

The owner said she had parked her car on Tuesday afternoon and hadn't been to it since. She said she has a remote car starter and might have accidentally hit the remote while she was in her residence hall room.

The woman shut the engine off.

At 11:37 p.m. the next day, an officer found the same vehicle running with no one inside. The officer contacted the woman who said she planned on taking the car in to get it fixed.


Attack of the black marker

Saturday, Sept. 1

At 2:33 a.m., two officers met an RA in Towers Hall lobby about a report of an intoxicated man. The RA said that the man, who was not a resident, had come into the building looking for a friend, but there was no such person living in the hall.

The man's upper body was covered in black marker. He had no shirt or shoes and would not identify himself, she said. When the officers found the man, he was in a restroom attempting to clean the marker off his chest.

The man said he had been at a house party off campus, was "jumped" and needed a safe place to go. While he was not a student, the man said he had a friend who had lived in Towers Hall last year so he decided to go there.

The officers noted that the man smelled of alcohol and that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot. He blew a .32 in a preliminary breath test. The officers issued him a citation for underage drinking, first offense.

The officers contacted the man's friend who said he could stay with her for the night. The man said he did not want to file a report for the assault.

Staff's choice
Punch drunk

Friday, Nov. 2

At 3:51 p.m., an officer responded to a report of two men who were possibly intoxicated and causing problems at the WIAC women's soccer tournament at Bollinger Field.

After the two men were pointed out, the officer saw they were carrying one gallon plastic jugs and drinking out of them.

The person who made the complaint said the men had been yelling offensive things and telling the soccer players to punch each other in the face.

The officer talked to the men and could smell alcohol. One of the men had a hard time standing, his words were slurred and his eyes were bloodshot.

Both men admitted to drinking and said their jugs contained vodka and fruit punch.

One of the men admitted to yelling at players to punch another girl in the face. He said he thought it was funny and couldn't understand how others didn't find it amusing.

The officer issued both men citations for open alcoholic containers. The games had ended and the officer told them they could go home.

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