Intruder breaks into Elliot Hall

On Thursday at 2 a.m., someone shattered the east doors of Elliot Hall , entered the building and broke the glass of a snack vending machine with bricks.

The intruder then left without taking any money or any of the machine’s contents.

The break-in came at an inopportune time, said Shawn Taher , representative of Taher Dining and Vending Service , which handles all University snack vending machines.

“I wish they would have waited two weeks,” he said, because he’s in the process of installing anti-theft camera equipment in all of the 1,000 vending devices.

Taher said the new equipment will take digital images of thieves and store them in the machine to assist police with suspect identification.

Even if the intruder would have taken money, he wouldn’t have made out with much. Taher said the vending machines are emptied of excess change whenever possible to protect the company from big thefts and to improve the safety of their money runners.

Taher added that this was the first time in his five years doing business on campus that one of his vending machines had been broken into without anything being stolen. Taher Dining and Vending Service operates 187 machines on campus including all snack, coffee and frozen food machines.

Bus beat-up

A University student late for a bus Friday caught his ride — and a property damage citation as well.

According to the police report, student Ivan Phifer punched a Campus Shuttle bus window several times while chasing the bus before the driver, Douglas Harwell, stopped to let Phifer on.

Harwell held Phifer on the bus and called police, who detained him, charged him with damage to property and let him go.

University police Lt. Chuck Miner said this is the first time anything of this sort has happened.

Occasionally people might pound on a window to get a bus to stop, Miner said.

“Actually breaking a window on a bus — that’s very unique and disturbing,” he said.

Enraged by honking, suspect damages cars

A night of dancing Friday at the Loring Pasta Bar turned destructive as a drunk driver damaged several cars and assaulted people trying to help him, according to the police report and a witness account.

An intoxicated Roberto Betancurt , 24, became infuriated when his car stalled on University Avenue, according to witness Michella Larsen, who was sitting in the car with Kirsten Day , Betancurt’s girlfriend .

Cars impeded by Betancurt’s vehicle started to honk, which Larsen, 22, said made the “really drunk” Betancurt angry.

Betancurt lashed out, kicked in one car’s headlight and broke another car’s driver-side window with his hands and head, spraying glass on the head of the driver, who then called police.

Larsen said while Betancurt was damaging cars, three men helped her push the stalled vehicle off University Avenue and onto Pleasant Street near Folwell Hall .

But Betancurt ran after the men, punched them and chased them away.

Police arrested him and charged him with fifth-degree assault and damage to a motor vehicle. The vehicle was towed and police took Betancurt to the Hennepin County Jail.