Don’t sweat it
While college does not have any sort of official dress code, the gym has an unofficial one. People expect to see running shorts, yoga pants, T-shirts and sneakers. No one would think to wear, say, a ski mask. Except this guy.
A University of Arizona Police Department officer responded to reports of a strange man wearing an outfit highly unusual for the gym and against the UA Campus Recreation Center’s policies on Sept. 9 at around 11:45 p.m.
The officer spoke with the shift manager and the on-duty security monitor who told him that their suspicions were first raised when they noticed a gym patron wearing a ski mask, gloves and jeans. The man used the weight bench and a treadmill while the security monitor kept an eye on him.
The monitor suspected that the man entered the building using his finger print and donned his more unusual items of clothing in the locker room before heading into the gym area.
The staff were not certain how they should approach the man; however, another gym patron had already alerted UAPD.
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By the time the security monitor finished explaining the situation, another staff member informed the group that the man was exiting the weight lifting area.
The officer walked up to the man, who turned out to be a UA student, and asked to talk. When the officer confronted him, a woman who had been walking with the man told him, “See, I told you,” as she walked away with a group, according to the report.
At the officer’s request, the man took off his mask, which he referred to as a “sweat mask,” while they talked. He explained that he wore the mask while working out because it made him sweat more after the officer told him that his choice of clothing was raising people’s suspicions.
The man also said that throughout the summer, he had worn the mask while working out and no one had brought this issue up before.
Giving him a bit of advice, the officer told the man to let the Rec Center staff know what he was doing so that it would not worry them and that wearing so many layers while working out could cause him to become dehydrated.
Loopy at Likins
They say that drunk people come up with creative solutions, though trying to create an emotional connection with a police officer probably will not get anyone out of a criminal citation.
A UAPD officer was stopped near the corner of Highland Avenue and Sixth Street on Sept. 12 when he spotted a young woman acting strangely at around 12:10 a.m. According to the officer, she was stumbling over her own feet, struggling to stay standing and not remaining within the crosswalk.
She reached the doors of Likins Residence Hall and dropped her phone while trying to gain entry to the building using her CatCard.
The officer walked over to her and asked if she was alright, as she looked like she had been crying and had dirt on the front of her skirt. The woman said she was fine, but had bloodshot eyes and smelled like alcohol, according to the officer.
While trying to gain access to the building, the woman dropped two driver’s licenses, one from California and one from New York. The New York license had a date of birth that would have made the woman 23 years old, but the California license gave a date of birth that put her at 18 years old.
The officer asked her to sit on a nearby bench so they could talk. The woman began to cry and asked if she could just go to bed.
Paramedics soon arrived to assess the woman’s condition and found that she had not been injured. The woman also called her roommate, who came out of the building and assured the officer that the woman did indeed live in Likins Hall.
The officer told the woman that she was not under arrest, but that he did have some questions. The woman told him that her sorority pledge class had attended a party at a fraternity house, though she could not remember which one. She drank alcohol, though she did not know what kind.
According to the officer, while the two were talking, the woman kept trying to give him her credit card to “charge it.” When he told her that giving him the card would not change anything, she apologized. She also said that she bought her fake identification online and that there was a “backup” fake ID in her room.
The officer cited her for possession of a fictitious ID and minor in possession. With the student’s permission, he went up to her room to confiscate the second fake ID. The woman was reportedly crying and apologetic during the whole ordeal. According to the officer, she also told him, “I’ll give you my heart and soul. I’m so sorry.”
The officer gave the woman her court date.
Stranger SAEfty
A surprise show-up at the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house led to a reported showdown with some members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on Sept. 13.
A UAPD officer arrived at the TDX house at around 1:30 a.m., where he spoke with a TDX house resident. He told the officer that he had been lounging in his bedroom, with his roommate in the living room area, when he left to go check out some voices he heard coming from a different common room area.
He found his roommate talking to two men who said they were members of SAE and that they used to live in that room. The men also said they wanted to look around their old room. According to the resident, the two men had let themselves in using a broken door.
The resident told them that they were not allowed on the property and asked them to leave. According to the resident, they initially listened and left his room.
While he was walking them out to the patio, the men began to shout at him, saying that the building belonged to SAE. He told them that he did not want any trouble and that they should just leave. Other TDX members reportedly began to come out to see what the commotion was.
It was then that one of the SAE members reportedly took a swing at the resident, though he missed. The resident told them to leave again.
As the crowd began to shout, the men were just past the front doors of the house, when one of the men again reportedly attacked the resident. He grabbed the resident’s face and caused his nose ring to come loose, drawing blood, according to the resident. The officer assessed the resident’s face and reported no obvious injuries.
The resident said he did not want to press charges. After several attempts to contact the SAE members, the officer visited the last known address of one of the men. The students who answered the door at that location said that no one living there belonged to SAE.
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