By Jim Clark

Police officers were dispatched to City Hall, at 93 Highland Ave., in the early morning hours of December 17 on reports of a motion alarm having been set off in the building.

Upon their arrival, the officers checked the perimeter of the building, including all accessible windows and doors but reportedly found nothing out of the ordinary. An audible alarm was reportedly sounding, but reset before the officers left the scene.

Shortly thereafter, the officers received a call for a drunken person in front of 95 Highland Ave.

They found the man, later identified as Joshua Joyce, outside in the snow with no jacket or shoes on.

Joyce reportedly told the officers that the last thing he remembered was waking up on what he thought was a pew in a church, vomiting.

According to reports, Joyce said he left the church and was outside in the street when he flagged down a car that was driving by. He reportedly stated that he had been out drinking with friends from work at the Thirsty Scholar when he blacked out.

Joyce said did not remember when he left the bar or how he got to the church, according to police. Joyce also reportedly said that an alarm was going off when he left.

Joyce denied medical attention and said that he just wanted to go home.

The officers dropped Joyce off at his home on Sycamore St. in the care of his roommates.

Afterwards, the officers conducted a follow-up investigation at City Hall and were able to determine that a panel on a door that was attached to the fire escape in the Aldermanic Chambers had been broken and the door was unlocked.

A pair of shoes and a large puddle of vomit was also found in the Chamber.

The officers went back to Joyce’s residence and placed him under arrest. He was asked to take a look at the pair of shoes that were found at City Hall and Joyce reportedly said that they were in fact his.

Joyce was subsequently taken in for booking, charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering and malicious wanton defacement of property.