Staff Reports: CrimeBriefs and NewsBrief

Locked door leads to slap in the face

A student reported April 13 that she was assaulted by her roommate. The victim stated that at approximately 7:30 p.m. April 9 her roommate slapped her with an open hand across the right side of her face. The roommate allegedly assaulted the victim because the victim locked the front door of their House H room. The victim stated she was not aware that her roommate had forgotten her keys, and she added that she had talked to Duke Housing and had not decided if she would take out a warrant for the criminal incident.

Subject discharges fire extinguisher before fleeing

Officers responded to a fire alarm in Epworth Residence Hall at 1:33 a.m. April 8. The activation of the alarm was due to someone illegally discharging a fire extinguisher, which was not from Epworth, on the first floor of the residence hall. An employee reported seeing a dark-haired, white male, approximately 6'2" tall, wearing a white shirt and white shorts, discharging a fire extinguisher outside the residence hall. The employee saw him run toward the East Quad.

Unlocked car easy pickings for CD player thief

A student reported that her $200 CD player was stolen from her unsecured car that was parked in the 1700 Pace Street parking lot. She last saw the CD player at 6:30 p.m. April 12 and discovered it missing at 7:17 a.m. April 13.

Cell phone taken from commons room

A student reported the larceny of his $100 Samsung cell phone. The victim last saw his phone in the House N commons room at 4:30 a.m. April 13 and discovered it missing at 11 a.m. the same day.

Merchandise stolen from Pink Smock

An employee reported the larceny of $56.85 worth of merchandise from the "Pink Smock" located in the Duke Clinics. The merchandise was last seen at 5 p.m. Friday, April 9 and was discovered missing at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 13.

Lost Medicaid card used at Duke

A patient reported the fraudulent use of her Medicaid card. The victim stated she had lost her purse with its contents about a month ago at the Wal-Mart in Durham. She also stated that approximately two weeks ago the Durham Fire Department off Lawson Street called her because they had found her purse. She stated everything was inside the purse except her Medicaid card. The victim's card was used at Duke for medical services March 30.

Fuel leak causes minor traffic deviations

What looked like a rather serious chemical spill disappointed onlookers Wednesday when it turned out to be merely diesel fuel.

A vehicle blew a fuel line and leaked a large amount of diesel gas onto Campus Drive in front of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at around 5 p.m. The offending vehicle was quickly towed from the scene.

Although there were no serious repercussions and the Duke University Transit System was not affected, there was some mild traffic diversion for several hours following the incident, officials at the scene said.

Several Duke University Police Department officers were called to the scene to direct the flow of traffic around the clean-up efforts.

Big John's Recovery System Emergency Response, a company that deals with environmental hazards, was also called to the scene to lead the clean-up job. Since the spill occurred after hours, Duke did not have the proper on-campus resources to effectively take control of the efforts, officials said.

Alan Call, a Duke safety and health specialist concentrating in spill control, emphasized that the problem was more of a traffic issue than an environmental incident.

"Its mostly a safety concern being that we don't want cars skidding through the stop sign onto the circle," Call said.

The clean-up efforts consisted of spreading an absorbent material over the affected road areas and then sweeping up the substance to remove the excess diesel from the road surface. The area will be sanded for precautionary reasons.

"This is really not too bad," Call said. "We have everything still running normally."

-- by Sophia Peters