Security Reports

04-09-2009Suspicious ActivityLot 19/ Softball FieldsAt 3 a.m., a DPS officer was checking the Alumni building when he saw a vehicle pull into Lot 19. Once parked, the vehicle lights were extinguished and the officer noticed that the streetlights in the parking lot were out as well.

The officer called for back-up and the two DPS officers got into one vehicle and approached the parked gray Nissan. As soon as the driver noticed the arrival of the DPS vehicle, the Nissan’s lights were turned on and began to leave the parking lot. DPS followed the vehicle onto Duquesne Rd. where the officers got close enough to get the rear license plate numbers. The second DPS officer then said that he remembered seeing the driver of the Nissan getting something out of a blue Chevy at the dorms not too long before. DPS found the blue Chevy and traced the license plate back to a male Southern student who lives at the dorms.

The DPS officer continued his rounds and was driving through Lot 23, in front of Blaine Hall, when the gray Nissan drove by. The vehicle turned into Lot 25 and parked. The officers approached the vehicle and began to question the female driver. She was first asked why she drove away from DPS when they tried to approach her in Lot 19. The female replied that she drove away because she did not know who the officers were. The officer then asked why she did not stop her car on Duquesne where there was sufficient light to see that the following vehicle was DPS. The female refused to answer the question. The officer then asked why she would turn into a dark area to park and then turn her car lights off. The female said, “I won’t lie, my mother has been drinking.” The officer asked the female if her mother was the one driving the car earlier. She said that her mother was not driving and that she, the student, was trying to get her mother to spend the night with her in the dorms. She said she parked the car just to talk to her mother.

The owner of the blue Chevy was sitting in the backseat of the female’s car. He stuck his head out of the vehicle and told the officer to talk to the female’s mother if he did not believe the female’s story.

The female was then asked again why she parked in a dark parking lot. She refused to answer again, saying that she didn’t understand why it mattered. The officer advised the female that her actions seemed suspicious and next time that she needed to talk to her mother, to go to a more secure place. The officer mentioned that she could have been hurt and the car may not have been noticed until the morning.

Liquor Law ViolationMayes Student Life CenterAt around 9 p.m., a DPS officer was in the Student Life Center and noticed two males arguing verbally who then began shoving each other. The two males noticed the DPS officer and quit fighting long enough to exit the building. The officer followed the two males as they walked outside toward Blaine Hall. Once the two men were through the door, one swung at, and hit, the other who then stumbled down the stairs. The more aggressive student then ran inside Blaine Hall. DPS walked up to the other participant and tried to talk to him about what happened. The male’s chin was bleeding and he became verbally aggressive when the officer asked him why he was bleeding. The male explained that his chin was bleeding “because he f***ing hit me.” DPS then noticed that the male’s eyes were dilated and he smelled distinctively of alcohol, making the officer asked him if he had been drinking. He said that he had not been drinking and said that he wasn’t a student at Southern when asked for his school ID. The male explained that he was just “hanging out” with the other male, who is a student, and that he didn’t want to press charges.

The male, who is not a student, sat down in the lobby of Blaine Hall where the officer asked him to call someone to come and get him. The male said that he knew of no one who would pick him up. The officer explained to him that he could not stay on campus and needed to have someone come to pick him up.

The officer contacted the resident director and the resident adviser of Blaine Hall to let them know that the other male, the student, was drinking again. This is not the first time this student has come into contact with DPS due to drinking.

The resident director accompanied DPS to the student’s dorm room and knocked on the door. No one answered the door and the room was entered by emergency key. The room was not occupied currently but there were six empty Natural Light beer cans out in plain sight. As the officer and the director were headed back to the lobby, where the male who is not a student was waiting, a resident of the dorm came up to them and told them that the student they were looking for was in his room hiding under his bed. The officer went to the other dorm room and told the student to get out from under the bed. There was no response and so the officer went to the bed and moved it away from the wall. The officer told the student that he knew he was there and that he, the officer, was done playing games. The student stuck his head out from underneath the bed and asked the officer what he wanted. The officer told the student to get out from underneath the bed and to get up off the floor. The student asked why before getting out from under the bed and sitting on the floor. The student asked the officer what his problem was. The officer said that there was obviously a problem when the student was hiding under an acquaintances bed.

The student replied with: “Because, man. There isn’t anything going on. We just got into an argument, but everything is cool now. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

The officer said, again, that if there wasn’t anything wrong, then there was no reason for the student to hide underneath a bed. The student replied with an “I don’t know.”

The student admitted to going to Casa Montez where the male who is not a student was drinking. The student admitted that he had gone home for the weekend and left his room key with his friend, whom he told could stay there, for the last four days. The student said that the beer cans must belong to his friend.

Both males were made to accompany the DPS officer into the Conference Room in Blaine Hall for a chat. The student was advised that he would be written up for violating the liquor law and for violating the visitation rules by letting the other male stay in his room.

The male who was not a student admitted the beer cans were his and that he had been drinking earlier. The student told his friend to take off and go to a friend’s house, but the male was warned not to leave by DPS and he stayed. Because he is not a student and is under 21 years old, DPS contacted JPD to have the male arrested. JPD arrived and arrested the male for a Minor In Possession at 10:15 p.m.

04-12-2009Property DestructionDryer HallAt 6:05 p.m., DPS was contacted about a possible break-in at Dryer Hall. A student returned to her room, after visiting her parents out of town, to find the bottom right window in her room hwas busted out. There was glass everywhere on the inside of the room, indicating that a person had kicked the window in. A neighbor first saw the broken window at 5:30 p.m. upon arriving back at the dorms. This neighbor said that the window was not broken when she had come home from church earlier that day at 1:30 p.m.. Two other neighbors said that they arrived back to their dorm room at 5:07 p.m., and the window was still intact. The students were asked why they did not report the crime and they each said that they thought that someone else already had.

The RA of Dryer Hall told DPS that he had let a student into a dorm room at 6 p.m. because the student claimed to have broken his key. On further inspection, the RA noticed that the serial number on the key matched those from Blaine Hall, not Dryer Hall. This student had previously said that he knew nothing about the window. The student also said the RA had let him into his room at 7 p.m., and not 6 p.m., as stated by the RA. The RA of Dryer said that he was dining with another RA at 7 p.m., and couldn’t possibly have let the student in at that time.

DPS then contacted the student’s coach who informed DPS that the student had left his house by 6 p.m.. The coach continued to say that he did not want the student at his house, but let him come over because the entire team was to be present.

The case is still pending at press time.

04-13-2009InformationLot 24/ Justice CenterAt 7:08 p.m., DPS was dispatched to Lot 24 to speak to a female student who noticed that her gas lid and cap for her Pontiac Grand Prix had been opened. The student reported having the same level of gas in her tank as when she left the car, but didn’t know if someone had tried to siphon the gas or put anything into her gas tank.

DPS looked at the gas access point and didn’t notice anything that would suggest that something had been put into her tank. The officer suggested that the student have her car towed to be checked out by a mechanic, but the student declined and drove the car home.