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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Police Beat 12/4/2019: Shots for shots

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Courtesy UAPD

University of Arizona Police Department officers on the UA campus. 

Drunks dunk

These were not the sorts of shots students are known for taking on the basketball court. 

Two University of Arizona Police Department officers arrived at the Campus Recreation Center at around 8 p.m. on Nov. 14 after receiving reports of students drinking alcohol at the Rec Center’s basketball court.

The officers spoke with the manager of the Student Recreation Center and were escorted to the indoor basketball court. There they spotted two students standing near the doorway holding Polar Pop cups from Circle K. One of the officers noted that he immediately recognized the smell of alcohol coming from the cups, which held a bluish-greenish liquid.

RELATED: Police Beat 12/4/2019: Shots for shots

The officers ordered the students to stop after they tried to walk away from the basketball court and spoke with the students separately. The first student told one of the officers that there was alcohol in the cup and that he was not yet 21 years old. The officer read him his rights and asked specifically what sort of alcohol was in the cup. It was “Tres Locos,” according to the report.

The officer who spoke with the second student described him as having “glassy” eyes and smelling of alcohol. The second student said that UAPD had already contacted him about a domestic violence incident and were now giving him a hard time about the alcohol when they could “just pour out the cup and call it a day,” according to the report.

The officer cited and released the second student for charges of minor in possession. He also poured the contents of the cup out in a nearby bathroom.

Bad influence

Threats online can be just as serious as threats in person — especially when a person makes their living online as an Instagram influencer.

A UA student met an officer in the lobby of the UAPD station on Nov. 15 at around 10:30 a.m. to report that she had been receiving strange messages and online harassment.

The student introduced herself to the officer and explained that she is an Instagram influencer and uses her social media page to promote products. 

Earlier that morning, she received a text from a number she didn’t recognize that included screenshots from a different conversation between the sender and an unknown number, one that had been blurred out in the screenshots.

According to the report, the person with the unknown number in the screenshots believed the sender was actually the student. The unknown person said they were going to press charges against the student for “money fraud and blackmail.”

The student said she blocked the sender’s number. But she later received another, similarly suspicious message from a new number that said, “Ain’t that crazy I told you something was gonna happen the other day and you said you don’t care?” according to the report.

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Based on the wording of the second text, the student said she believed she knew who was behind this. She told the officer that a man began to direct message her a few weeks ago on Instagram, where he got her Snapchat information and phone number.

She said he wanted something more out of her but that she told him she was not interested in any sort of romantic relationship. He reportedly responded by saying that he would “ruin her life.”

The student had already blocked the man on all social media, as well as his phone number. She did not know much about his whereabouts because they had only spoken online. The officer entered the screenshots into evidence and called both phone numbers, leaving messages when nobody picked up.

Later, the student emailed the officer and told him she had received a text from a different number that accused her of having a friend pretend to be a police officer. The message also said she needed to figure out how to deal with the charges.

The next day, Nov. 16, the officer told the student to respond to the newest number and tell them to cease and desist any further contact. The officer also contacted the newest number asking them to call him back and to stop contacting the student.

Dough and snow

Most college students would consider themselves lucky to have a few bucks in their wallet, but finding cocaine might not be quite so exciting, especially when the cops are involved.

A UAPD officer met with the front desk manager at Coronado Residence Hall, who has an eclectic collection of found items that she wanted to report to the police on Nov. 13 at around 10 a.m.

The desk manager handed over a lanyard, keys and a wallet to the officer and told him the items had been turned in by an anonymous student who found them on his bike. When she searched the wallet for some form of identification, she found a small baggie of white powder.

The officer noted in the report that he also suspected the powder was cocaine. A field test revealed that the substance did indeed test positive for cocaine.

The keys turned in with the wallet had a dorm key on them. The desk manager found that it belonged to a student living in Likins Residence Hall.

RELATED: Police Beat 11/13/2019: Red blood, yellow paint and underage blues

A second officer joined the first as they met with the student in his dorm room. The first officer asked the student if he had lost his keys, to which the student responded that he had. 

The first officer read the student his Miranda Rights and continued to question him. He showed the students a photo of the lanyard, keys and wallet and asked if they were his. The student said they were and that he may have lost them outside Coronado last night.

The officer asked if he kept anything in the wallet, to which the student said he did not. He kept his cards on a sleeve on his phone. He showed this to the officers. 

The first officer asked to see the students identification and the student handed over his CatCard. But the officers saw what looked like another ID in the card sleeve and asked to see that. The student said that it was “not real,” according to the report.

The officer then informed him that they had found cocaine in the wallet. The student said that he did not know how it got there or who it belonged to because he did not use cocaine or know anyone who does, according to the report. The officers cited and released the student for having a fictitious ID.


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