View Police Blotter - Feb. 23, 2010 in a larger map
Laundry fail
Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) at 5:50 a.m. on Feb. 17 received a call from a Hodgdon Good-to-Go employee who smelled smoke in the kitchen area.
Upon arrival, TUPD officers found a dryer that was emitting smoke from an item that had caught on fire. Somerville Fire Department responded to the call and removed the dryer from the building.
TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy said that the worker called before the smoke became an issue and the dryer did not pose a threat to the building. Although McCarthy's records do not show a report of students evacuating the building, students report that they were alerted by the fire alarm and evacuated at approximately 6:15 a.m.
They weren't there for the free printing
A staff member at the Women's Center on 55 Talbot Ave. called TUPD at 8:43 a.m. on Feb. 17 to report an attempted break-in.
The intruder had tried to break into the Women's Center through a porch door. An examination of the door showed that the screen of the door had been cut open and glass on the interior side of the door seemed to be broken.
"It looked as if someone tried to get through that door but couldn't," McCarthy said. TUPD does not have any leads on the case.
Don't talk to sketchy strangers
TUPD received a call at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 21 from a female student who reported that at 9:30 a.m. she had been walking along College Avenue next to Ellis Oval when a vehicle pulled up beside her. A man inside the vehicle offered to give the student a ride if she wanted one.
The student ignored him and after the vehicle, which she described as a white or silver SUV, drove away, she took down its license plate number, which matched a number from a vehicle that had recently been reported as stolen.
McCarthy said that TUPD worked with the Medford Police Department and Cambridge Police Department on the investigation and that their officers think they have identified the driver of the vehicle.
He said that although the female student described the man as "creepy," he could only be arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle and not for speaking to the student.
"He didn't commit a crime," McCarthy said. "So there's really not much we can do. We will be looking for the vehicle, though, if it's around campus."
McCarthy also praised the student for her appropriate response. "She did the right thing," he said. "She ignored him and kept going."
