Police Dispatch

WATCH OUT, OR HE'LL STEAL YOUR BADGE, TOO

WEST ROGER ROAD

JULY 11, 1:52 A.M.

A belligerent drunk man sporting law-enforcement paraphernalia ultimately failed to pass as an officer, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.

Deputies responded to the Stockmen's Lounge bar, at 1368 W. Roger Road, where the bartender reported that an intoxicated man in a red jacket and white shorts had gotten into a fight with two other men while she was trying to close the bar. The jacketed man, she said, had pulled out an expandable policeman's baton and was wielding it at his opponents.

When deputies made contact with the subject, he insisted he was "one of them" and showed off his "night stick" while stumbling around and slurring his words. He also pulled out a law officer's flat badge—without a name—and said it was his.

When asked where his credentials and name badge were, the subject said they were "at home in his other pants."

Apparently, the bar's owner had believed the subject was a deputy "acting in official duties" during the bar brawl, and therefore initially did not want to press charges. He changed his mind when told about the subject's status—and declared the subject had, in fact, hit him in the face with the baton.

It was later determined that the baton and flat badge belonged to a female probation officer who was apparently an acquaintance of the subject. It was not reported whether or not he was one of her charges.


IF THEY ONLY HAD BRAINS

EAST MANZANITA AVENUE

JULY 13, 8:26 P.M.

Three apparently bored teenagers lit an elementary school's scarecrow art project on fire, a PCSD report stated.

Deputies responded to a call from neighbors of Manzanita Elementary School, 3000 E. Manzanita Ave., who reported that three juvenile subjects had been trying to light on fire a series of scarecrows set up outside the school. Deputies located the subjects and caught two boys near the school; the other was chased back and forth between the school and a nearby residence until he was finally caught in the house's pool area.

The scarecrows, apparently made by the school's students and filled with newspapers and shopping bags, had been secured on wooden posts, but were now knocked down, with their paper innards torn apart, burned and strewn around the school's lawn. The fire had been started with toilet paper and a Bic lighter with an American flag on it.

The ringleader of the art-arson gang said he was sorry and knew what he did was wrong. He admitted to a history of lighting objects on fire.

All three boys were arrested.