Police Dispatch

Quiet; I'm Sleeping

Barraza-Aviation and Kino Parkways, Jan. 8, 4:19 a.m.

Police arrested an allegedly drunk man who had stopped his car and fallen asleep in the middle of a main thoroughfare, a University of Arizona Police Department report stated.

A passer-by phoned authorities to report that a white car had stopped in the northbound center lane on Kino Parkway. A police officer reportedly found 20-year-old Juan Carlos Perez Zarate sleeping in the car, with his head resting on his left shoulder and his right foot on the brake. The vehicle was still running, and the gear was in drive.

The officer noted that the car was on a level surface, but any movement forward would have sent it rolling down a hill, so he parked his patrol car in front of it and applied the parking brake.

Tucson Fire Department personnel arrived and were able to finally rouse Zarate, who, when he awoke, smiled "and put his finger to his lips as if telling the firefighters to be quiet," the report said. He then laid back and closed his eyes.

According to authorities, Zarate finally appeared to notice all the people around his vehicle, and his eyes opened wide. The car lurched forward and struck the patrol car, the report said.

A firefighter broke a rear window, and emergency personnel dragged Zarate, who was allegedly resisting them, out of the car. Officers placed Zarate in a patrol vehicle while he cussed in a nearly unintelligible mixture of English and Spanish, the report said.

Zarate took a preliminary breath test that reportedly showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.231, which is nearly three times Arizona's legal limit of 0.08. He did not appear to have any injuries, and there was no damage to either his vehicle or the patrol car.

Police arrested and booked him on charges of driving drunk and underage drinking. Zarate denied the charges at the time of the report.


Professional Pisser

Cortaro Farms and Thornydale Roads, Dec. 23, 8:04 p.m.

A well-dressed man allegedly urinated in front of a woman who was watching him through an open window at her home, a Pima County Sheriff's Department report said.

The woman said she had her blinds open as she cleaned a room. She told authorities that she noticed a man, who appeared to be a businessman or real estate agent, staring at her nervously from across the street.

The man reportedly went to a wall, pulled out his "privates," as the woman called them, and urinated. She said she closed her blinds; when she reopened them, the man was gone.

There was no further information at the time of the report.