Don’t look under the bed
Lots of college students keep things under their beds, like dressers and mini-fridges, but stashing a rifle there will get you a visit from the University of Arizona Police Department.
That is the lesson one Villa del Puente Residence Hall resident learned Aug. 6, when officers arrived at the residence hall at approximately 8:30 p.m. The officers had received reports of a male student entering the hall with a concealed rifle in a case.
UAPD officers had been previously informed of the name and room number of the man. The officers knocked on his door several times and announced themselves.
A man answered the door and was directed to step outside. He then identified himself as the man the officers were looking for.
The man told the officers that he was storing a gun under his bed. One officer found a shotgun case underneath the bed with the gun inside. Another officer checked the gun, which was empty of any ammunition.
There was a second man in the room, the first man’s roommate and friend since high school. The roommate spoke with the officers, explaining the situation to them.
According to the roommate, the first man had gone dove hunting that morning using the shotgun.
RELATED: Police Beat 9/12/2018: Fight club OR We’re breaking the first rule of Fight Club
The man usually kept the gun at a family friend’s house. However, that day the family friend had not been able to pick up the gun, so the man brought it back to his room.
The roommate stated that today was the first and only day the shotgun had been in the room.
After speaking with the officer, the roommate called his aunt who lives in Tucson. She agreed to pick up the shotgun and take it back to her residence.
Once she arrived, the officers turned over the shotgun for safekeeping and gave her a grocery bag containing the live ammunition and empty shells they had also found in the room.
No criminal charges were filed, but the officers referred both men to the Dean of Students Office.
Clean up that mouth
UA students should be worrying about tests, not street harassment, but that did not stop two men in a carpet-cleaning van from making inappropriate comments about a female student Sept. 4.
The student went to the UAPD station to report the incident at approximately 11 a.m., when she spoke with an officer.
She told the officer that she was walking to class earlier in the day when a white van with two men inside began following her. One of the men shouted at her making an inappropriate remark about her body.
The student continued walking. Again she heard one of the men shout at her, this time in Spanish, before the van finally drove away.
As she continued to make her way to class, the student saw the same van parked at the Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall. After her class finished, she went to the police station.
She took pictures of the van before it drove away, which she showed to the officer. The van had the business name of the carpet and tile cleaning business Carpet Magicians on its side. A phone number was also printed on the van.
RELATED: Police Beat 9/5/2018: The Case of the Bracelet Bandit!
The student told the officer that she would not be able to identify the men because she did not clearly see their faces. She just wanted to report the incident in case it happened again. The officer provided her with a case number.
The officer then went to Graham-Greenlee but did not see the van anywhere in the area. He then called the number on the van and spoke with the owner of Carpet Magicians, informing him of the incident.
The owner immediately stated that the incident could not have occurred, as he was the one driving the van that morning and had not been in the area.
After the officer informed the man that the student had taken pictures of the van, the man continued to deny the incident ever occurring. However, he did agree to talk to his employees about inappropriate comments and harassment.
Follow Vanessa Ontiveros on Twitter
