Police Blotter

Police investigate a secret business happening in vans, a crash near campus

More stories from Lauren Kritter

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Strange Business

University Police were called on Sept. 11 to assist the Eau Claire Police Department with a case at Kwik Trip on West MacArthur Avenue. Two vans were parked in the lot near the entrance doors of the building.

Five males were attempting to sell items out of the vans, according to the police report, and were bullying Kwik Trip customers with their sale tactics. As an officer approached the van, the  males were trying to sell to a group of females who were trying to walk away.

According to the report, the men apologized when the officer stated the reason for the contact. The men said they had asked permission to sell their items in the lot and if they had known it was making people uncomfortable, the store workers should have said something.

The two vans were similar to each other and had the words “Mikel Knight” on the side. The men told the officers they were selling CDs to raise money for SAFE HAVEN, which is a home for troubled boys looking to turn their lives around.

Different groups sell these items out of vans over the county. One of the men stated he had a permit to sell items but could not produce it when the officer asked for it.

Kwik Trip employees asked these men to leave the premises. The officers advised the group that they need to leave and if they were to be contacted again they would be cited. The group said they understood.

One crash or two?

University Police responded to reports of a crash in the Hibbard parking lot on Sept. 10. A passerby called in and said it appeared a crash occurred and people were yelling at each other.

They were then also informed of a vehicle crash near the intersection of Garfield and Park Avenues, but didn’t know if the two crashes were related or not.

Once police arrived on scene, it was detected that the two  reports were the same. The actual location of the crash occurred near the 1500 block on State Street.

Bathroom Nap

An intoxicated male subject was located sleeping on the floor in the bathroom of Horan Hall. When an officer arrived on the scene he attempted to wake up the male subject by shaking him and verbally stating that he was a police officer. The subject did not respond.

A Blugold ID was found underneath the subject and he was then identified.

The officer started to move the subject so if he woke up he would not hit his head on the wall, according to the police report. In doing so, the man woke up in a daze but would not speak to the officer for a few seconds.

The man said he was alright when the officer asked, according to the report.  A strong odor of alcohol came from the subject. He consented to a preliminary breath test. It took the subject three attempts to get an accurate reading because he could only lightly blow into the tube.

The subject denied medical attention and stated he just wanted to go to bed. As the officer filled out paperwork, the man continued to mumble incoherent random statements. He was issued with a first offense underage drinking violation.

According to the report, while the officer explained the ticket to the subject, the man said, “yeah like you care about me,” and walked out of the bathroom.