HUPD Squad Car Vandalized With Keg

U-Haul roofs and Yale playing fields weren’t alone in feeling the impression of thousands of drunk Harvard students this weekend, as the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) reported the keg-inspired vandalization of one of its cruisers Friday morning.

According to spokesperson Steven G. Catalano, at around 3:30 a.m., an officer noticed that the windshield of a cruiser parked on Plympton Street was “spider-webbed” with dozens of slashes and its roof dented. The officer also noticed an empty keg lying on the ground nearby, Catalano said.

Catalano said the officer filed a report of the vandalism, and added that a such a crime is uncommon but not unheard of in HUPD history.

“I’m sure over the last 20 years something has occurred,” he said. “But I can’t remember any in the last four years or in recent memory.”

Catalano said a “thorough” investigation is ongoing.

“Vandalism to a police car or a student car or a building is senseless,” he said. “We do not see this as any more important that any other act of vandalism.”

He said the use of the keg might have held some significance because of the keg ban at last year’s Harvard-Yale game.

‘We’re not sure whether this was just an act of stupidity or an act of stupidity with symbolism,” Catalano said.

Catalano said he could not comment on the specifics of the investigation and whether HUPD would attempt to trace the keg’s owner through its label.

—HANA R. ALBERTS