"Bazinga!" (Part I)
UA Area Feb. 12, 3:23 p.m.
An intoxicated young man wearing a "Big Bang Theory" T-shirt, according to a UA Police Department report, essentially robbed a young woman at "garden-tool-point."
The victim told UA officers that she'd been waiting for her father—a UA professor—on a bench in a courtyard on the UA campus when a Hispanic male in his 20s approached her; he had a cut lip and was wearing a gray-hooded sweatshirt and a T-shirt reading "Bazinga!" (apparently a promotional shirt for the TV show "The Big Bang Theory").
When he asked her how much she'd paid for her cell phone—slurring his words as if due to alcohol intake—she became uncomfortable, but she attempted to act normally, telling him her father had bought it so she didn't know.
Then she became really alarmed when the man reached into his left sleeve and pulled out what she described as a long, metal-pointed gardening tool with a wooden handle. Fearing for her safety, she said, she fled the scene and called her father, leaving behind her backpack and all its contents.
Further exploits ensued (see next segment).
"Bazinga!" (Part II)
UA Area Feb. 12, 3:42 p.m.
The same man who'd tried to hold up the young woman with his scary-looking gardening tool was later caught shoplifting makeup and other items from the UA Bookstore, a UAPD report stated.
The bookstore's loss-prevention employee told UA officers that the man had stolen a Clinique makeup compact, a pair of "Dr. Dre Beats" brand earbuds and some plastic-framed sunglasses (with a total cost of $254.83) and casually exited the store, where the employee confronted him. He was reportedly slurring his words—apparently drunk—but he willingly followed the loss-prevention officer to a conference room to wait for campus police. As they were walking, the employee said, the man told him he was 21 years old but couldn't remember his birth date. Asked if he had any weapons, he said no—but then he pulled out the same "weapon" vaguely described by the young girl in the courtyard: a weed-removal tool with a 16-inch metal shaft and a forked tip.
When officers met with the man, they saw he was wearing a gray hoodie and a black T-shirt reading "Bazinga!"—just like the subject in the courtyard—as well as white tennis shoes with fluorescent green laces. In addition, he carried a blue backpack (which could've been the one abandoned by his courtyard victim).
Asked where he lived, the young man slurred, "Under the new bridge," but officers soon learned that he'd actually just walked away from a group home.
He was handcuffed and brought to jail.
