Police Beat 10/17/2018: Student Union Special

Signature Move

Soliciting students for their signatures was not on the menu at the Student Union Memorial Center food court, as it ended up requiring an officer intervention on Oct. 2.

A University of Arizona Police Department officer noticed a confrontation between two men and a UA employee at approximately 11:50 a.m.

While approaching the conflict, the officer overheard the employee explain to the men that they were not permitted in the food court area.

The officer stepped in and separated the two men from the employee. When the officer asked him to stand near the UA Bookstore’s window, one of the men became verbally hostile.

Both men presented the officer with identification when asked, and the officer conducted a records check.

Two more officers arrived on scene and spoke with the men while the original officer interviewed the UA employee.

She told the officer that a union staff member informed her that there were two men soliciting signatures from students in the food court area.

The employee said that the men had previously been warned against soliciting signatures in that area.

A UA custodian also spoke with the officer and said that she saw the men asking a student questions. The men reportedly walked away when they saw the custodian coming toward them.

The officer also interviewed a UA facilities supervisor, who stated that he recognized the men as they had been told in the past not to solicit signatures in the food court area, but they could do it on the north or south end of the breezeway.

According to the facilities supervisor, the men responded to this warning with hostility.

After these interviews, the officer learned from dispatch that the first man had two outstanding warrants with the Tucson Police Department for failure to appear.

The officer detained the man by handcuffing him and seating him in his patrol vehicle.

When the warrants were confirmed at approximately 12:10 p.m., the officer placed the first man under arrest and transported him to Pima County Jail.

The officer also issued a six-month Exclusionary Order, banning the first man from all UA property.

The police report did not specificy the fate of the second man.

Caught on Camera

A University of Arizona student applied the five-finger discount to three items from the UA Bookstore on Sept. 28.

Four days later, on Oct. 2, UAPD officers received a call from the bookstore in reference to the previous shoplifting incident, as the suspected perpetrator was again spotted in the store.

Officers met with the UA Bookstore employee who had made the call at around 10:30 a.m.

The employee stated that the store’s security footage caught the shoplifting incident from Sept. 28 as well as a clear image of the student behind it.

The employee recognized her from the footage when the student returned Oct. 2.

The officers and the employee were standing outside the bookstore when the employee pointed at a student walking out of the store and said “there she is,” according to the report.

One of the officers caught up with the student, who was wearing a red backpack, at the end of the breezeway and asked for her name, which she gave. The student denied having any form of identification on her.

Another officer asked if they could look through the student’s backpack. She granted permission. Inside, the officers found her CatCard and driver’s license.

The license listed a different first name than the one she had given.

The officer who had first spoken with her read the student her Miranda Rights and asked if she had taken anything from the bookstore on Sept. 28.

The student admitted she had stolen two items, though the security footage caught her stealing three.

When the officer asked why she shoplifted, the student replied that she wanted the items but could not pay for them.

The officer inquired into the current location of the stolen items, and the student told her that they were in her apartment and that she could get the items back.

The officer gave her a ride to her apartment and retrieved the three stolen items. She cited and released the student for shoplifting.

The items, valued at $99.37, were returned to the Bookstore.

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