Security system turns off thief

A University of Arizona Police Department officer responded to the Park Avenue Garage at 1140 N. Park Ave. on Thursday at 5:20 p.m. in reference to an attempted car theft.

The officer met with a man on the ramp between the third and fourth levels by the man’s black Chevy Tahoe.

The man told the officer that he parked his car at 1 p.m., and, when he got back to it at 5:10 p.m., he noticed that the steering column had been torn apart. He said he only touched the driver’s side door and passenger side door but did not go inside the car.

After the officer inspected the car, he saw that the lock on the driver’s side had been punched out, and the lock on the passenger side had been damaged in an attempt to remove it. The officer also noted that the steering column was broken and had many exposed wires.

The owner of the car told the officer that the car had a security system that shuts down the engine if the system is not turned off before any attempts to start the car.

The officer reported that if the system had not been turned on, then the car would have most likely been stolen.

The man also told the officer that several items were stolen from the car including a UA parking permit, an AAA auto insurance card, a Sam’s Club membership card, Gucci sunglasses and a towel with a Korean flag logo on it.

When the officer processed the car, he was able to lift several fingerprints from the box holding the securitysystem and the speaker system.

Photographs of the car were taken, and the fingerprints were sent to Pima County Jail for processing.

The man was issued a victim’s rights form, and his vehicle was inventoried.

The officer also requested a list from UA Parking and Transportation of every time a car entered or left the garage between 1 and 5:10 p.m.

There are no suspects or witnesses.

Pink bike plunderer on the prowl

A UA student reported to UAPD on Thursday at 11:47 p.m. that her bike was stolen.

The woman stated that her pink Electra brand beach cruiser bicycle was taken from the Alpha Delta Pi sorority house at 1443 E. First St. some time after Feb. 14.

She fist saw that the bike was missing on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

The bike was secured to her sorority’s bike rack with a cable lock.

Forget your backpack, lose your stuff

A UA employee called UAPD on Thursday at 6:43 p.m. asking to be let into a classroom in the Social Sciences building so he could get his belongings that he left there earlier that day.

When the officer arrived to the building at 7:10 p.m. and verified that the man was allowed to enter, the man found that his belongings had been taken.

The man told the officer that his green colored laptop backpack, a Cannon Powershot digital camera and a Seagate external computer hard drive were missing from the classroom. The digital camera was worth $129, and the hard drive was worth $114.

The man also stated that he did not have a telephone and was unaware of his local address. He presented his foreign Visa to the officer to identify himself.

After the man attempted to call the professor of the classroom to see if he knew where the backpack was, the officer advised him to contact UAPD if he learned more about his missing items.

$2,000 bike stolen

A UA student reported to UAPD on Feb. 17 at 9:23 a.m. that his bicycle had been stolen the previous day from the bike racks between the César E. Chávez building and the Communication building.

The man told the officer that he’d locked his bike to the racks at 9:15 a.m. and had checked on his bike in between classes at 11 a.m. and saw that it was still secured.

He noticed that the bike had been stolen, along with the lock, at around 7 p.m.

The man described the bike as a black and gray Specialized Tri-Cross Road Bike with two white LED lights on the front and back.

The officer reported that the man valued the bike at around $2,000.