An unfortunate turn of events

On Jan. 14 at approximately 12:27 a.m., campus police pulled over a car heading southbound on State Street for driving with no tail lights, speeding and swerving between lanes.

According to reports, the car was pulled over right outside the driver’s house after the officer had followed the vehicle for a few blocks to examine the driver’s behavior and do a background check.

When the officer had the driver roll down the window, he found a male passenger alongside a female driver and could immediately smell a moderate odor of intoxicating beverages coming out of the car.

The officer checked the IDs of both the occupants and found they were of age, calling another officer for assistance.

The driver’s eyes were bloodshot, the officer examined, and she admitted to the officer she had three mixed drinks throughout the night and consumed her last drink two hours prior to getting in the car.

The driver was asked to perform standardized sobriety tests and failed. The officer could also smell alcohol on her breath when they were speaking.

The officer finally asked the driver to submit to a preliminary breath test where she blew a 0.149 according to the report.

The intoxicated driver was then immediately put in handcuffs and was under arrest for first offense of operating while under the influence (OWI), with a bond amount of $937.50 and was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital to submit to an evidentiary blood test.

The driver had requested her keys be given to the passenger so that he could enter the house.

The second officer on scene approached the vehicle to find the passenger sleeping, only waking after multiple pounds on the passenger side window.

He was heavily intoxicated and unwilling to leave the car in order to head into the house.

The driver, now at the hospital, had requested her cell phone so she could call someone to help bail her out of jail. She insisted she needed her own phone because she didn’t know any numbers by memory.

She said she thought her cell phone was in her sweater pocket but the officer advised her he had already checked her pockets.

She then suggested her phone must be in her purse, which was in the car.

The second officer, once finished watching the male passenger stumble in the house, went to retrieve the cell phone from the car.

The officer found the purse, but found no cell phone inside.

Instead, inside the purse, the officer located a bag of marijuana and paraphernalia, a grinder, a glass pipe, a wire with black residue on the end of it and a lighter.

This officer reported her findings to the first officer, then addressed that the driver’s cell phone had indeed been in her sweater pocket the entire time.

The driver was transported to the Eau Claire County Jail and was issued a warning for speeding and operating without required working lights. She was issued a Wisconsin Non Traffic Citation for possession of marijuana with a bond amount of $389.50 and a Wisconsin Non Traffic Citation for possession of drug paraphernalia with a bond amount of $326.50.

The driver was charged a total of $1,653.50 in citations and tickets.

You found what in your garbage can?

On Monday, Jan. 16 at approximately 3:58 a.m. campus police received a phone call in reference to a rat found in a garbage can in one of the dorm rooms in Towers North.

The Resident Assistant said he has not been up to the room to verify if it was in fact a rat or a mouse.

According to the report, a student was woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of scratching coming from her garbage can in her dorm room.

She stated that she saw a brown animal in her trash bin.

It had in fact actually been a bat that was flopping around in her garbage can, which was then escorted outside and released back into the wild where the bat then flew off into the night.