It started when a Department of Public Safety officer contacted a man prowling bike racks near the residence halls.
It ended when a Eugene police SWAT team, armed with flashbangs and an armored vehicle, busted a house where people sold methamphetamine in Springfield, police said.
It was one of several examples of how routine stops on campus, often of people prowling bike racks, have led to larger drug- and stolen-property busts over the years.
In this case, a DPS officer stopped an 18-year-old homeless man on May 5 for casing bike racks on campus and trying to elude him on bicycle, DPS officer Royce Myers said. After getting permission to search the man’s backpack, Myers found marijuana, meth, spray paint cans and a clear film canister containing several different spray paint can tips, Myers said.
Eugene police cited the man for possession of meth and graffiti instruments, Eugene Police Department officer Chris White said.
That’s when the man, whose name police would not release because of concerns for his safety, led police to a bigger bust, White said.
“I started talking to him about where he got (the meth),” White said. “We got enough information from him to write a search warrant for a Springfield address.”
Police decided to use a SWAT team because they knew the homeowner had guns and surveillance cameras around the home, said White, who waited a couple of blocks way to pursue fleeing suspects if necessary.
Before 5 a.m. on May 8, the team invaded the home, at 698 Night Hawk Lane, and arrested Terry Leon Trudeau, 35, and Patricia Jean Gordon, 29, on meth-related charges.
Trudeau, the homeowner, was arrested on a warrant for a contempt of court in Eugene Municipal Court and for delivery of meth, possession of meth and endangering the welfare of a minor, White said.
Gordon, a resident, was arrested on a warrant for theft and on charges of frequenting a drug house and endangering a minor’s welfare, White said.
Gordon’s 2-year-old son lived at the house but is now living with his grandmother, White said.
Both Trudeau and Gordon were taken to jail and have been released.
Gordon’s listed number was disconnected and the Emerald could not locate a number for Trudeau.
In November 2004, Myers stopped a man on campus who he’d seen prowling the bike racks, he said. The man, who had a pair of bolt cutters with him, admitted to being a heroin addict and told Myers where he was going to take the stolen bikes.
Police surrounded a campus-area house and knocked on the door, and a resident admitted that everyone brings stolen bikes there. Police found baseball-sized chunks of heroin and a room devoted to growing marijuana inside the house. They arrested four people and hauled away one truckload of stolen bikes, including one recently stolen $2,000 bike belonging to a doctoral student, and two truckloads of other stolen goods, White said.
In April 2005, police found heroin packaged for sale and stolen property at a home on Ferry Alley between East 17th Avenue and East 18th Avenue, White said. They arrested two people and cited a third.
Police got a tip on the house from a bicycle thief they stopped on campus, White said.