DeKALB | The University Police see their share of strange happenings when on patrol.

The Northern Star tagged along with Sgt. Todd Henert of the University Police Saturday night from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Though there wasn’t much action, there was plenty to learn.

Just plain weird

As the clock approached midnight, the vehicle passed an unusually-dressed man carrying a dog wrapped in a garment.

“I guess if he wants to carry his dog around at midnight, that’s his business,” said an amused Henert.

Henert said these kind of things often don’t register with him after some of the things he has seen.

“You see some fantastically bizarre things where you say, ‘I don’t know what [it] is you’re doing, but it ain’t right,'” he said. “Sometimes, it’s hard to even articulate a response.”

Henert has seen everything from people fighting trees to people attacking Huskie Buses with large sticks to people bathing where and when they shouldn’t.

“We had a guy a while back who would go take a bath in the lake in the dead of winter,” he said. “Most of the other officers would hear it on the radio and would drive out just to point and laugh.”

Get off that Mazda

As 1 a.m. approached, a call came in from the radio. In a flash, Henert did a U-turn, kicked on the lights and sirens and headed full-steam toward the problem.

Upon arriving, he discovered that the call originated from a Late Night Ride Service van, where a student had dangerously overindulged in alcohol. Within moments, the ambulance arrived.

“When you get a call to where the ambulance is already in route, you have to expect the worst,” Henert said.

Henert believes alcohol consumption leads not only to situations like this, but also to a great majority of the crimes committed on campus.

“I believe alcohol leads to crime because judgement becomes impaired,” he said. “You rarely have a sober person out jumping up and down on a car. They aren’t going to say, ‘I have to jump on this car. I can’t explain it, but I just have to.'”

He doesn’t recall alcohol being nearly as large a problem when he was in college.

“I never saw this while I was in college,” he said. “It’s impressive, but not in a good way.”

Hit or miss

Throughout the three hours, campus was fairly quiet.

“It’s hit or miss,” Henert said. “Thursday through Saturday, college guys are out running around, doing their thing. It only takes one person to do something really stupid.”

Part of Henert’s route brought him across the Grant C sidewalk, where last weekend’s horrific assault occurred.

Though Henert was not on duty at the time of the incident, he still was shocked to hear of it.

“That absolutely never happens on this campus,” Henert said. “People will fight, but I’ve never seen something like that happen before. You can’t allow someone to get victimized like that.”

Henert was proud of how his officers handled the situation.

“I thought our officers did a fantastic job,” he said. “Within 30 hours, we had confessions. To go from nothing to everything in that short a time, that’s pretty damn good.”

The relationship the UP shares with NIU students influenced their desire to find the perpetrators, Henert said.

“For that to happen to the residence halls that officers patrol, it’s offensive to them,” he said. “Our officers were killing themselves over this, just trying to bring this kid some justice.”