UCA student honored for crime tip

The University of Central Arkansas Police Department recognized on Tuesday a student whose crime tip led to the arrest of two young men suspected to have stolen items from at least a dozen vehicles, mostly on the UCA campus.

On Oct. 13, student David White called the university’s police department to report seeing a man later identified as 18-year-old Aaron L. White of Norphlet, Ark., in a campus parking lot allegedly pulling on the door handles of vehicles in an apparent attempt to find an unlocked car. According to UCA Chief of Police Larry James, the crime tip included detailed descriptions of the suspect’s physical appearance and clothing — right down to the emblem on an umbrella the suspect was carrying — and the direction he was last seen heading.

James said that Aaron White, who is not related to David White, was stopped by a UCAPD officer about two minutes after the call and admitted his involvement in theft on the campus and the involvement of his alleged accomplice, 19-year-old George S. Azo of El Dorado. Both were arrested. Aaron White is charged with breaking or entering, theft of property and fraudulent use of a credit card. Azo is charged with burglary and theft of property.

About $2,140 worth of stolen property was recovered and returned to its rightful owners, James said, including a laptop belonging to a UCA student that James said wept at the loss of her semester’s schoolwork when she reported the theft.

David White waived his right to anonymity after UCAPD contacted him and asked if he would be interested in publicly receiving his $100 cash reward and certificate of appreciation in hopes that UCA students and campus visitors will be more inclined to immediately report suspicious activity.

“We’re trying to serve the community,” James said, “and if we are all a part of this community (then) the more we watch out for each other, the better for all of us.

“We just want to let the community know how much we appreciate it,” he said.

His decision to report the crime was part of his civic responsibility, David White said, as was his decision to help UCAPD encourage others to report crime.

When asked if he was worried that the suspects might retaliate, David White said that it was “always a concern,” but that it comes with the same sense of civic responsibility that caused him to call police in the first place.

(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)