Crime on campus happens every day, but sometimes the students put themselves at risk by either drinking too much, leaving their things unattended or driving under the influence of illegal substances. Part of practicing safe thinking is learning from others’ mistakes.

All information taken from FAU Police Blotter

False alarm

Aug. 30, 2011 – 11:00 p.m.

Location: Lot 16, Student Union parking lot

A 44-year-old, non-FAU man was arrested, but released.

A FAUPD officer was patrolling campus when he noticed a man sitting in the driver’s seat of a green Honda with the passenger window rolled halfway down. The officer asked for the man’s I.D. and did a records check on him. The man had an active tresspass warning from all of the FAU campuses.

He was placed under arrest and taken back to the station for processing, but they found that he was only banned from athletic fields and athletic buildings.

He was brought back to Lot 16 where he was originally arrested.

Lesson to be learned: First off, don’t sit in your car in the middle of the night for no reason. It makes you a target for the police to investigate. Secondly, a 44 year old man sitting in the parking lot of a college campus by himself at 11:00 p.m. is strange. But what’s weirder is that he’s not allowed to be around anything sports related.

Back in the slammer

Aug. 31, 2011 – 10:04 p.m.

Location: Lot 19, Library parking lot

FAU police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office served a warrant to a resident student who violated probation.

She was arrested on the spot and given a student referral.

Lesson to be learned: Don’t break probation, or else you’ll end up right back in jail.

Gone like the wind

Aug. 30, 2011 – 9:50 a.m. 

Location: Recreation Center, Men’s Locker room

A student’s HTC HD2 phone was stolen from his gym bag, which he had left opened and unattended.

The student told the police he left his open gym bag in front of some lockers when he walked around the corner to wash his hands. According to the student, there were two white males in the area where he left his bag, but when he came back, the men were gone and so was his phone.

There are no surveillance cameras inside the locker room and the camera outside the door didn’t show the suspects.

Lesson to be learned: Thieves are criminals of opportunity. If you leave something of value in plain sight, even for a second, chances are that it’s going to grow legs and walk away. If you care about your belongings, treat them like your children and keep them glued to your hip.

Up in smoke

Aug. 30, 2011 -10:12 p.m.

Location: University Village Apartments

A woman called the police because her suitemate was smoking pot in her room.

The police entered the apartment and walked into the room where the smell of burning marijuana smelled the strongest. When the student opened the door, she admitted to the police that she was smoking.

She also went to her desk and pulled out a plastic container with raw rolling papers and about one gram of pot.

She had a male visitor in her room who was given a trasspass warning. If he returns to any FAU campus and is caught he will be arrested.

The student who was caught toking up was given a student referral.

Lesson to be learned: If your suitemate, or anyone you live with, has to call the police anonymously, it’s probably because he or she has already told you that he or  she doesn’t like you smoking in the apartment. Even if the girl’s suitemate hadn’t ratted her out, she probably still would have gotten caught. Burning pot is not hard to snift out.

Vanishing decals

Sept.4, 2011-3:32 p.m.

Location: Lot 34, west of Innovation Village Apartments 

A resident student called campus police because someone took the decal off of her car.

The student came back to her silver Toyota Celica at about 3:30 p.m. when she realized that her decal was missing.

She told the police that she had noticed another resident’s car decal was “molested.” The police contacted the owner of the other car.

The student with the “molested” decal told the police that she parked her white Suzuki SUV on Thursday, Sept. 1, at about 11:00 a.m.  and hadn’t been back since.

The police told both students that they had until Wednesday to get a new decal.

Lesson to be learned: The first student did the right thing by contacting the police right away and telling them about both cars.  With their decal numbers, police can eventually find the perps who did this.

Lazy parking

Sept. 2, 2011-4:57 p.m.

Location: Lot 19, Library parking lot

A student used his grandfather’s handicap parking permit to park in a handicap spot.

The student told the police that he was dropping off a book at the library and that he didn’t know that his grandfather had to be with him in order to use the permit.

Turns out the permit was issued to his dead grandmother. It was confiscated, and the student was given a parking citation and a student referral.

Lesson to be learned: Sometimes it’s better to play dumb, but if it’s so obvious that neither you, the driver nor anyone in the car is physically disabled, then you shouldn’t use the permit. Not only that, but this happened at about 5 p.m., when there were plenty of parking spots. Walking an extra five feet wouldn’t kill you.

Running scared

Sept. 3, 2011-2:21 p.m. 

Location: Innovation Village Apartments, South

A RA was following up on an animal complaint when he noticed someone smoking pot in a room.

When the police knocked on the door, the student looked worried and immediately ran back inside the room in an attempt to hide a pair of shorts on his chair.

The officer told the student to sit on the bed, and in plain sight, on top of the shorts, was a digital scale used to weight pot.

There was a bag of marijuana in plain sight on the window sill, and another in his shorts.

The student was placed under arrest for possession of paraphernalia and under 20 grams of marijuana.

He was also given a student referral.

Lesson to be learned: Don’t run. You made the first mistake by lighting up in a small area. If you’re caught, running to hide something isn’t going to help because police will search the room anyway.

Seatbelt troubles

Sept. 4, 2011-4:50 p.m.

Location: Indian River Street 

Campus police were on patrol when an officer noticed a Black Mitsubishi Lancer with three men in the car. Both the driver and the person in the passenger seat weren’t wearing a seatbelt. When the officer pulled the car over, he could smell pot.

The driver, an FAU resident student, admitted they had smoked. He told the police there was still pot in the center console with paraphernalia.

When police searched the car they found:

1 bag of pot

1 green and blue pipe

1 green metal grinder 

1 blue “Smoke Buddy” (a handheld air purifier)

1 fake ID

Because the student cooperated with police, he got a student referral instead of criminal charges.

Lesson to be learned:  Most students don’t realize this, but it’s very common for campus police to find students with illegal substances after a traffic stop. Something as simple as not wearing your seatbelt could result in criminal charges.

(The University Press cannot anticipate when FAU police sends records. Dates vary due to records request)