Grand Theft Golf Cart Jr.
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Another year, another stolen golf cart. However, the members of the group behind this classic crime were barely old enough to drive at all!
A University of Arizona Police Department officer was on patrol when he saw a golf cart without any lights on come out of the Cherry Avenue Parking Garage at approximately 11 p.m. on Aug. 17. Inside the cart were five boys.
After noticing some erratic driving from the cart, the officer began to follow it with his vehicle’s emergency lights on. The boys soon pulled the cart over and ran out.
The officer alerted other officers to the situation. He managed to catch up to and detain one of the boys. Other officers caught three of the other boys. All of the boys in the cart were revealed to be minors.
The first officer spoke to the first boy, the one he caught. The first boy told him that he and the others had been drinking and celebrating one of the boy’s birthdays when the group decided to head to the university’s campus and search for a golf cart they could drive. They finally discovered an empty golf cart near McKale Center.
One of the boys reportedly had a “universal” golf cart key that he used to operate the cart. According to one of the boys, they each took turns driving and another boy said he was unsure who had driven because he was in the back of the cart.
Only one of the boys had alcohol still in his system, according to the results of a preliminary breathalyzer test that the boys were all given after being caught.
The officers charged the getaway driver with a class five felony for unlawful use of means of transportation. The three passengers were charged with a class six felony, the lowest class possible, for unlawful use of means of transportation. The boy with alcohol in his system was also charged with minor in possession of alcohol, a misdemeanor.
One of the officers got in contact with the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center. A worker there told officers to release the boys to their parents, which they ultimately did.
One of the officers noticed that the parents seemed to know each other, so he told them that the fifth boy, the one who had managed to slip away from the golf cart and police chase, could turn himself in.
At around 1:40 a.m., the fifth boy arrived at the UAPD station and turned himself in. His account of the night matched the ones given by his friends and he was released to his parents as well.
The golf cart suffered no apparent damage.
Record Keeping
Though libraries may be a place for all knowledge and records of the past, recording students in a library may lead to an encounter with UAPD.
A UAPD officer responded to a call from an employee at the Science and Engineering Library regarding a man recording students in the library on Aug. 17 at around 2:30 p.m.
When he arrived, the officer spoke to the employee, who told him that a man had been recording students in the library, which is against library policy. When the employee told the man to stop and explained the rules, he ceased recording for a brief time before resuming.
The employee described the man’s attitude as argumentative but not hostile or dangerous, and requested he be removed from the building.
The officer contacted a sergeant who had interacted with the man the day before when he attempted to attend orientation, despite not being a student. The officer learned that the man had actually had three meetings with UAPD officers in the past and decided that an exclusionary order from all UA-owned property was necessary.
Shortly after speaking with the sergeant, the officer found the man using a computer. He told the man that recording students was not allowed in the library. According to the officer, the man began to loudly argue with him and the officer asked that he lower his voice.
He asked the man to take his things and follow him outside. When the man continued to argue, the officer told him if he did not comply, he would be failing to meet a reasonable request, which was grounds for arrest. The man responded that he did not find the request reasonable but ultimately did as he was told.
Outside the library, the officer explained that the man was no longer allowed on any UA-owned property as the officer issued an exclusionary order. The man accepted the order and walked away, though he recorded the encounter with the officer on his phone.
Mardi Graffiti
When spray painting graffiti between two residence halls, there is not much room for error — unless you want to get caught.
An officer arrived at Coronado Residence Hall just after midnight on Aug. 18. A resident assistant told her that at least two men, including one wearing a mask with a long nose, like the kind a person would wear at Mardi Gras, had been spray painting in the alley between Coronado Residence Hall and Árbol de la Vida Residence Hall.
When another officer made his way to the alley, he saw two men running away but managed to speak with one of three men that were there.
The second officer spoke with the first man, asking if the man knew why he was trying to talk to him. “Because we are making art,” the first man reportedly said.
The “art” in question, was an 8-by-6 foot spray painting of a mushroom with a face, done with red, pink and purple paint, according to reports.
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The second officer detained him while the other two men were interviewed.
The original officer to arrive at the scene spoke to the second and third men. The second man told her that he had spray painted the drawing on the wall.
The third man initially denied spray painting the drawing but later said he had painted in the same area as the second man. He also confessed to having a CBD oil container on him. The contents of the container tested positive for THC.
He was also the man holding the Mardi Gras mask, though the first man had been the one originally wearing it.
The officers cited and released the first and second men for criminal damage. The third man was arrested on charges of possession of narcotic drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal damage graffiti. The first officer to arrive on scene handcuffed him and brought him to Pima County Jail.
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