Prof stopped for stealing own car

University Police officers assisted Philadelphia Police officers last night in taking into custody a man who claimed to be a University adjunct professor for entering what he said was his own car. University Police and Philadelphia Police were keeping a gray Saab 900 parked on Walnut Street between 39th and 40th streets under surveillance at approximately 7:30 p.m. last night. The Philadelphia Police Department received a report that the car had been stolen earlier in the day. A team of officers from Philadelphia Police and University Police positioned themselves discreetly in the vicinity of the parked car. Uniformed city officers hid behind Dubois College House, at 39th and Locust streets, and along Walnut Street, while plainclothes University officers Brian Ferry and George Smarkola hid in the Walnut Street Baskin-Robbins. At approximately 7:50 p.m., a man left Kinko's Copy Center and approached the car. As he opened the driver's door to enter the car, officers Ferry and Smarkola ran from the store and seized him. The officers were joined by uniformed officers of both departments, who handcuffed and frisked the man. The man, who refused to give his name, explained that the car was his own, and that it had been broken into earlier in the day. An unknown person or persons had broken the driver's side window and stolen the car radio, he said, and the Philadelphia Police Department had somehow misunderstood that the car itself had been stolen. The police watched the car because of this report. "I just came out of Kinko's, and they threw the cuffs on me," the man said. Officer Gary Heller, who had been watching the car from behind Dubois College House, called his positioning "deep under cover" and said that accosting the man "could be a mistake." In a more serious incident this weekend, a male University student who had been robbed earlier in the week spotted his robber near Graduate Towers at 4:57 p.m. Friday. The robber allegedly approached the student and asked him to sign a petition at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, at 36th and Chestnut streets. The robber then took $30 in cash by force from the student. Police made no arrests in connection with the incident. In an unrelated incident, University Police responded to a report of a firework being shot from the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity house at 11:47 p.m. Thursday night. Police confiscated a bong they found at the house as well. In an unrelated accident, a male University student with a prior injury tripped on the trolley tracks at 40th and Spruce streets and rebroke his still-healing leg. In a separate incident, a brawl broke out on the 24th floor of High Rise North at 11 p.m. Saturday night. One male University student was brought to the University Police headquarters for questioning. The incident will be referred to the Judicial Inquiry Office. More than two hours later, University Police responded to a report of criminal mischief on the 22nd floor of HRN and took two juvenile males in for investigation. The two, neither of whom is a student, were reportedly kicking holes in the walls of the hallway at 2:32 a.m. Sunday morning. They were released to their parents after being questioned.