By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 16, 1998

Police Beat

A female UA student Wednesday complained to university police about her roommate's drug use after overhearing the roommate tell her boyfriend they should put drugs in the woman's nose while she sleeps, police reports stated.

The student told police her roommate bragged about using LSD, mushrooms and cocaine, but would always get high somewhere other than their room in Yuma Residence Hall, 1107 E. North Campus Drive.

About 5 a.m. Feb. 5, the student was awakened by her roommate, who came in the room with her boyfriend and started using "Special K," slang for Ketamine, a cat tranquilizer, reports stated.

While pretending to sleep, the student told police she heard her roommate say that they should put some Special K in her nose while she slept to see what it would do, reports stated.

Police talked to the roommate in her room at about 3 p.m. Wednesday, and she denied the incident. The roommate told police she used to use drugs but she was trying to stop, reports stated.

A search of the room revealed no contraband, and police warned the woman of the consequences of drug possession.

The director of Coronado Residence Hall called university police Thursday after maintenance workers told her a student's ninth-floor room smelled like marijuana.

The University of Arizona workers were in the room at 12:36 p.m. to repair window blinds and noticed the odor, as well as a burnt "roach" sitting on top of a desk in the room, police reports stated.

Police arrived five minutes later and discovered four to five open and empty beer cans, the roach and an orange medicine container containing 2 grams of suspected marijuana, as well as a plastic bag covering the room's smoke detector, reports stated.

An officer also found a plastic soft drink container with a sheet of fabric softener stuffed inside, which was believed to have been used as a smoke diffuser, reports stated.

Police took the suspected contraband and left a message for the room's occupants to contact university police headquarters.

A near-accident Thursday resulted in a shouting match between two motorists near East Lowell Street and North Mountain Avenue.

Witnesses told police a 1986 Chevy van driving east on Lowell Street continued through the intersection after stopping for a stop sign, and almost collided with a tractor-trailer truck driving south on Mountain Avenue, police reports stated.

The driver of the truck stopped to avoid a collision with the van, then both motorists began to swear and threaten each other, reports stated.

Both drivers told police that there was no assault and neither man wished to press charges, reports stated.

The vehicles of two UA employees driving on an icy stretch of road near Mount Graham International Observatory collided Thursday.

There were no reported injuries.

Steward Observatory mechanic Randall Swift, 43, of San Carlos, was headed down the mountain on state Route 366 about 8 a.m., having just loaded 80 gallons of Diesel fuel into the bed of the UA-owned pickup he was driving, police reports stated.

Swift told police he was going about 10 mph down the snow- and ice-covered road and tried to stop when he encountered a 1991 Jeep Wrangler driven by Matthew J. Nelson, 39, a Steward Observatory scientist.

Nelson told police he turned his vehicle into a snow bank to try to avoid the pickup, but the truck slid into Nelson's Jeep and dented the driver's side door and body.

University police forwarded the details of the crash to the state Department of Public Safety.

A UA employee reported $20 missing from a cash register Wednesday in the photocopy section of the Main Library, 1510 E. University Blvd.

The employee told police the theft occurred between 4 p.m. Feb. 3 and 3 p.m. Feb. 5 from a locked register at the Special Collections desk, and that $20 is usually left in the register overnight in order to make change the next day.

According to reports, 18 people who work in the section have a key to the register.

A $160 microwave oven was reported stolen Thursday from a student lounge at the James E. Rogers Law Center, 1201 E. Speedway Blvd.

Custodial workers discovered the oven missing at 8:22 a.m. Thursday, and said it was last seen during the afternoon of Feb. 6.

Police Beat is compiled from official University of Arizona Police Department reports.