Police Beat 11/21/2018: Crack the Case

Egg-scuse me officer

A University of Arizona student fell victim to a classic crime that’s usually reserved for high school movies and Halloween night: egging.

The student called the University of Arizona Police Department Nov. 13 at approximately 7:30 p.m. and spoke to an officer. He told him that he’d parked his car on the first floor of the South Stadium Garage on Nov. 7. When he returned Nov. 9, he found it covered in eggs.

According to the student, most of the eggs, which had dried by the time the student found them, appeared to have been thrown at the rear of the car, a Volkswagen Jetta. He sent photos of the eggs on the car to the officer.

The student also discovered a bag of eggs nearby, though he did not take a picture of it.

He told the officer that it took two hours for him and his family members to clean the eggs off of the car. The removal had also caused some of the car’s paint to peel.

The student said he wanted to press charges for the damage.

The officer asked the student if he had any idea who might have egged his car, and the student said he had his suspicions.

He said he believed it may have been the owner of a Chevrolet Camaro that also parks in the garage. According to the student, he and the Camaro owner often parked in the same spot, informally trading off.

Recently someone had begun placing traffic cones in that spot. The student suspected this was the work of the Camaro owner.

On Nov. 7, the student had moved the traffic cones in order to park in that spot and said he believed it was possible the Camaro owner had egged his car in retaliation.

The student clarified that he had not ever spoken to the Camaro owner nor seen him egg his car.

He sent photos of the Camaro and license plate to the officer, who ran a records check and found it belonged to a fellow UA student.

The officer spoke with the Camaro owner in his residence hall. The Camaro owner said that while he did regularly park in the South Stadium Garage, he did not use traffic cones and had not noticed a Jetta parking in his usual spot.

He claimed to have had no knowledge of the egging besides noticing dried eggs on the ground in the garage.

Cops and Copper

Arizona has a strong history of mining copper. However, taking it from a transformer box on a dairy farm probably won’t make it into the state history books any time soon, as it’s very much illegal.

A UAPD officer arrived on scene to Campbell Farms Nov. 13 at approximately 8:30 a.m. There, she spoke with an employee of the farms near the dairy farm feed shelter.

The employee told her that the electrical box and the transformer box that supply energy to the feed shelter had been damaged.

At approximately 7 a.m. that morning, the employee had discovered the damage to the transformer box.

The damage was extensive. The metal cover that protected the inside of the transformer had been removed, presumably so someone could get to the copper inside. The wiring that was supposed to connect the electrical and transformer boxes had been cut.

Additionally, someone had cut the copper wiring inside the transformer as well. The officer noted that there were obvious signs that several of the copper wires had been removed.

Other coils had cut marks on them and the internal copper wire exposed, however the copper had not been taken. According to the report, copper wire dust covered the bottom of the transformer dust.

Inside the electrical box were also signs of thievery. An unknown person had cut and removed several of the copper wires.

The officer was unable to collect any potential evidence that day.

According to another employee, who specialized in electrical work at the farm, the damage and stolen wiring would likely be worth over $5,000. The value of the stolen copper wiring could not be calculated.

As of Nov. 19, the price of scrap copper from insulated wires was $1.40 per pound, according to capitalscrapmetal.com.

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