UMD Crime
BY SARA JOCHEMS
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
ISSUE: 78/18
Students kept university police busy this weekend on their return home from winter
break. “Between Friday, Jan. 25 and Saturday, Jan. 26, we issued 27 underage consumption
tickets,” said Sgt. Tim LeGarde, of the university police. “All of them were on-campus, between the dorms and apartments except for two.” These exceptions involved a chase in Parking Lot L, outside of Goldfine, between two men and university policemen Sgt. Sean Huls and officer Jacob Willis.
“According to the report, we [university police] approached a vehicle that was crowded with people,” LeGarde said. “We simply said that we did not advise that many people into the vehicle because it was not safe, when two men jumped out of the backseat and fled.” LeGarde said that the chase ended in the woods behind Heaney Hall, after Huls asked the two suspects to come out of the woods. “Besides underage consumption, they were also charged with fleeing police on foot,” he said. LeGarde was a bit shocked by the amount of tickets that were issued over the weekend.
“I haven’t actually averaged the amount of tickets that are issued over the weekends, but if I had to put a number on it, I would say that we issue between 10-12 tickets a weekend,” he said. University police have also had to deal with more thefts that were reported within the last week. “On Wednesday, Jan. 23, an iPod was reported to be stolen from behind the front desk in the Sports and Health Center,” LeGarde said.
The report indicated that around 7:30 p.m., the victim set his iPod on top of his belongings and went to play a game of basketball. When he returned an hour later, his iPod was gone.
“It is a black iPod with a clear plastic cover and also contained a shoulder strap and set of white headphones,” LeGarde said. According to LeGarde, the case is still pending.
Also sometime last week, maroon parking pass number 1951 was taken from a car parked in Lot E between 2:30-8:30 p.m. “The victim didn’t know for sure if she had locked her car or not,” LeGarde said. “When she went to her car, there was no physical entrance of a break-in.” LeGarde wanted to stress the importance of making sure people remember to lock their doors. “Vehicle prowlers work especially well when the weather is this cold,” he said. “They know that people are more careless in the winter months and will leave their stuff out.”\
Still a concern for university police is the old Chester Park School, located off campus on West College Street. It has had two different reports of construction equipment disappearing from the area. LeGarde said that one of the construction companies called them and said that the weekend of Jan. 18, copper and other construction materials were taken from the site.
LeGarde added that this past weekend another call was made with regards to the old building.
“This time it was construction tools that were taken from the premises,” he said. If anyone has information about any of the stolen items, please contact university police.
On a more positive note, the Lake Superior Lobby couch that was reported stolen between Monday and Tuesday evening of last week was returned.
