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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

    Police Beat: Feb. 17

    Concealed camera confusion

    A digital video recording device was found in the women’s locker room at the Ina E. Gittings building on Sunday.

    An employee from the School of Dance contacted the University of Arizona Police Department on Monday regarding the camera.

    A UAPD officer responded to the Gittings building and met with several scene shop employees and a custodial employee.

    The custodian noticed a white box on the wall next to a paper towel dispenser in the first floor women’s locker room sometime last December.

    The custodian assumed that it was a speaker that enabled performers who were changing to keep up with the performance.

    But, the custodian noticed that the box would be gone one day and reappear the next day with no pattern.

    One of the scene shop staff thought that it might have been an air freshener based on the way it looked.

    However, the staff member became suspicious, as there was no odor coming from it.

    The device was mounted to the wall on an L-bracket with a double-sided adhesive.

    When the staff returned to the locker room on Sunday, the device was gone with only its L-bracket left on the wall.

    The staff then searched the Internet and found the exact device they had all seen in the locker room.

    The device is the Safe Home Covert Camera 1.

    The paper towel dispenser hid the device from normal view, but it was angled to view the mirror by the sinks, which provides a clear view of all the bathroom stalls and a few showers.

    The device couldn’t see into the closed showers, but during a busy show, performers often change in the open, the staff said.

    Neither the staff nor the custodian knew of any suspects at the time.

    The officer researched the camera and found that it is intended to blend in like an air freshener.

    The camera runs on battery power and is capable of taking still photographs and video and is motion activated.

    The staff said that they would keep an eye out for other devices around the building and have notified the head of the department.

    I have no idea where that beer and pot came from …

    A male UA student was arrested for marijuana possession and being a minor in possession of alcohol on Monday around 12:30 a.m.

    A UAPD officer responded to Coronado Residence Hall after a resident assistant in the dorm noticed the smell of marijuana.

    Upon arrival, and with the help of the RA, the officer could smell the odor of marijuana strongly coming from a room.

    The officer knocked on the door repeatedly but the residents did not respond. After about 45 seconds, a student answered the door.

    The officer asked the student’s permission to enter the room and speak.

    The student allowed the officer into the room, and the officer immediately noticed several empty cans of Keystone Light on the coffee table in the center of the room.

    The student’s roommate was sitting on the top bunk in the room.

    The officer explained that a strong odor of marijuana was detected in the hallway and that he was investigating it.

    The officer asked the residents a few questions. The residents claimed that the beer in the center of the room did not belong to either of them and that they did not know how it got there.

    The two did not have any other roommates but another male had been staying in the room until the week prior.

    The residents gave the officer permission to search the room.

    Other officers arrived and held the residents in the hallway while the officer searched the room.

    During the search, the officer found 18 full and cold cans of Keystone Light in the refrigerator, a marijuana vaporizer plugged into a surge protector on one of the resident’s desks, two glass pipes with marijuana residue on the floor and a white plastic container containing marijuana.

    The officer exited the room and spoke with the residents again.

    The roommate that was sitting on the bunk admitted that the marijuana and the vaporizer were his. The glass pipes belonged to the other male who had been staying with them.

    The roommate refused to say where the beer came from.

    The other roommate submitted to a breathalyzer test but no alcohol was detected in his system.

    The officer arrested the first roommate for marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and minor in possession of alcohol. The roommate was cited and released.

    The officer seized the marijuana and paraphernalia and ordered the residents to dump the beers out in the bathroom.

    The roommate was referred to the Dean of Students Office for a code of conduct violation.

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