University Police cited and arrested a former University employee in two separate incidents in Coffman Memorial Union last week.
Edgar Romeo Coleman, 43, has a history of arrests by the University Police Department, said University Police Sgt. Joe May.
“He’s a troubled individual,” May said. Coleman has been previously arrested three to six times by University Police, he said.
On Thursday, Coleman was issued a trespass warning, which bans the recipient from entering University buildings for one year, because he was found sleeping in the entryway of the student union. He was arrested Monday for wiring one of Coffman’s doors shut and sleeping in an entryway, May said.
In other police news occurring between Nov. 19 and Nov. 25:
ù Another man was issued a trespass warning for sleeping in a hallway of the Phillips-Wangensteen Building, according to a University Police report.
May said the incidents are most likely connected to the recent cold weather.
ù A small amount of Valium, a prescription sedative, was stolen from the Diagnostic Radiology Department of the University Hospital and Clinic Tuesday, according to a University Police report.
University Police Detective Larry Anderson said 17 five-milligram tablets of Valium were stolen.
“It’s a very small amount,” he said.
Anderson said drug thefts are not a common occurrence in the hospital, and police have no suspects in the incident.
ù A plainclothes University Police officer cited a man Thursday because he begged her for money, according to a University Police report.
The man approached the officer and asked her for money, after which she identified herself as a police officer and issued the man a citation for panhandling, the report stated.
ù An electrical fire in the Vocational and Technical Education Building was extinguished Tuesday by the St. Paul Fire Department, according to a University Police report.
Cathie Bergum, a program assistant in MAST International, the department housed in the office the fire started in, said the fire ignited because floor outlets underneath the office carpeting became wet. She said the office used to be a typing classroom, so numerous outlets were located along the floor.
The fire was detected almost immediately, Bergum said, and there was little damage to the carpeting. She said the floor outlets were removed the next day.