A man punched a St. Paul student in the face, knocking his tooth out, at McDonald’s in Dinkytown early Thursday morning.

St. Paul College junior Dalton Kite said he brought two of his friends to the restaurant early Thursday morning after a 21st birthday celebration. They were intoxicated, so he left them in the car while he went inside.

Kite came back outside about five minutes later. His friends were sitting on the ground, he said, and two men were trying to take pictures with them.

The men wouldn’t leave when Kite asked them to, he said. He stepped between the two groups to keep his friends from being photographed and said one of the strangers punched him in the face.

“I just stood in the way,” Kite said. “Next thing I know, I’m on the ground.”

Police arrived at the scene and took Kite to the hospital, where staff managed to put his tooth back in place. Kite said a police officer got milk from McDonald’s to preserve the tooth.

He said his friends were grateful for his interference.

“They were sitting in the hospital room with me for the whole four hours,” Kite said.

Earlier this month, police used mace and pepper balls to break up an unruly crowd in the Dinkytown McDonald’s parking lot.

The Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, which includes Dinkytown, has seen six other assaults this year, according to police data.

Burglary foiled

A man was arrested for allegedly breaking into a University of Minnesota student’s garage early Sunday morning, according to a Minneapolis police report.

Chemistry graduate student Deirdre Manion-Fischer said her roommate woke up to the sound of glass breaking in their duplex on Fifth Street Southeast. Her roommate looked outside and saw a group of people trying to open the garage door.

“We’re not really clear on the number of people,” Manion-Fischer said. Her roommate then called the police.

Minneapolis police Sgt. Bill Palmer said two suspects were at the scene when police arrived. They ran away, but police later found one of them hiding underneath a car across the street.

“We were just in the living room waiting while this was happening,” Manion-Fischer said.

Nothing was stolen from the garage. Manion-Fischer said the suspects tried to take her bike but abandoned it when police arrived.

“I was quite upset,” she said.

Police have recorded 47 other burglaries in Marcy-Holmes in the first half of this year.

Urination on Dinkytown Wine and Spirits

University police cited a man for urinating on the outside of Dinkytown Wine and Spirits early Saturday morning.

Pedestrians on the street and sidewalk could see the man, the police report said, and an officer saw a “large puddle of urine” on the pavement.

University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said crimes like this are fairly common around bar close.

People guilty of public urination or intoxication sometimes send apology letters as part of restorative justice programs, said Dinkytown Business Association President Skott Johnson. Johnson said he hadn’t heard of this specific incident but gets about a dozen such letters addressed to Dinkytown every year.

Theft from St. Paul campus parking lot

Someone broke a man’s car window and stole his laptop while the car was parked in a University lot on the St. Paul campus Thursday evening, according to a police report.

The man is not affiliated with the University. Miner said thefts from St. Paul parking lots aren’t as common as other parts of campus.

Break-ins like this usually occur in the afternoon or early evening, Miner said.

“Typically,” he said, “thieves like that don’t necessarily get up early.”

Three campus thefts July 17

Three thefts occurred on the University campus on July 17.

All of the victims left their belongings unattended. Police don’t have any additional information about the suspects.

A man left his cellphone, driver’s license and credit card on the bleachers in the University Aquatic Center, according to a police report. He came back half an hour later and saw they were gone.

Around the same time, a staff member at the Phillips Wangensteen Building had her credit card and about $75 in cash stolen from her unlocked office, another report said.

That night, a student staying in Comstock Hall left his room unlocked for about an hour while he went on a walk. Someone came into his room and stole his backpack, which contained his laptop, the police report said.

University police don’t believe the thefts are related, Miner said.