Interactive Map | Police Briefs

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Sally sells seashells on

Bellevue Street

The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) responded to a call at 9:26 a.m. on Oct. 3 at a residence on

Bellevue Street

in Medford, after a resident reported that someone stole a number of items from her porch. Among the missing goods was a wooden table; the resident's young daughter had 100 seashells on it. TUPD officers found the seashells in a common room in Wren Hall.

After the young girl was reunited with her seashells, she "drew a big picture and sent it down to the [TUPD] office," according to TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy.

The guessing game

In the early-morning hours of Oct. 7, a City of Somerville worker called the Somerville police after the worker saw a visibly intoxicated person try to cross

Somerville Avenue

by the

Powder House Square

rotary. The worker said the person, who was a Tufts student, had been stumbling and had almost been hit by a car.

When TUPD officers responded to the incident at 2:52 a.m., the student had stumbled onto the sidewalk and was leaning against a building by the Dunkin' Donuts on the rotary.

A Somerville police officer at the scene asked the student how much he had drunk. The student told the Somerville officer "to try and guess," McCarthy said. "The Somerville officer guessed he had six beers and some shots … The student says, nah, he had way more than that. So the Somerville officer wasn't even close."

Into the wilderness

TUPD officers were called to Bush Hall at 2:16 a.m. on Oct. 9 for a report of two intoxicated students. One student told officers that he had drunk 14 beers and some vodka, and the other claimed to have consumed 13 beers and some vodka. They had been at an off-campus party with the "the wilderness club," according to McCarthy (Tufts has an outdoors-focused student group called the Tufts Mountain Club, as well as a pre-orientation program entitled Tufts Wilderness Orientation). Both students were transported to SomervilleHospital.

A little early for senior dinner?

TUPD received "a few" phone calls on the afternoon of Oct. 10 about an intoxicated student wandering near Tisch Library toward Gifford House, the university president's residence. An officer was dispatched at 3:40 p.m. and found the student by the side of Gifford House. He had fallen a few times and had abrasions to his hand, arms and knees. The student said he had drunk two beers. He was transported to LawrenceMemorialHospital for further observation.

Schloshed and confused

A TUPD officer saw a student at 2:10 a.m. on Oct. 11 holding an open container of beer crossing

Packard Avenue

at Professors Row. The student said he was under 21 years old and did not have a Tufts identification card on him, but he gave officers a name and said he lived in Lewis Hall. TUPD officers checked the information the student gave them, but it turned out that no student by that name attended Tufts.

The officer asked the student to dump the beer, and another officer who responded noticed two additional cans of beer in the student's pocket. Officers told the student -- who was unsteady on his feet, smelled of alcohol and was slurring his words -- to place them on the ground.

As the student put the cans down, he suddenly sprinted off down

Packard Avenue

. But he quickly fell over -- then got up, ran a few more steps and fell again.

Cataldo Ambulance Service transported the student, who turned out to be a Tufts student, to SomervilleHospital for further observation. He turned out to be underage, as he had previously stated.

"That's the thing they usually lie about," McCarthy said.