Two Syracuse University students were charged with criminal possession of stolen property Tuesday morning after they turned themselves in to Syracuse Police.

Seniors Nicholas Harisis, an advertising major, and Roger Brown, a financer major, were issued an appearance ticket after admitting they used a stolen credit card last month to buy food at a Wegmans grocery store in DeWitt, Harisis said.

The two students were extremely intoxicated after a night of consuming alcohol, he said.

Sgt. Tom Connellan of Syracuse Police said a credit card was stolen from another SU student on Oct. 13 at Ambrosia in Armory Square.

The Syracuse Police do not know who stole the credit card, Connellan said.

Harisis said he has neither been to Armory Square nor Ambrosia.

Harisis and Brown were at Lucy’s Retired Surfer’s Bar on South Crouse Avenue last month when another man, who said he was an SU alumnus, started buying them shots, Harisis said.

The two talked and drank with the unidentified man for some time before leaving to get food, Harisis said.

‘We thought he was like a big-shot, or something,’ Harisis said.

While they were leaving, the man pulled out a credit card and handed it to Harisis and Brown. The man said to the two students the card was a business card with a couple hundred dollars of credit limit on it, Harisis said.

‘He told us, ‘Go and have fun. I was in college once too,” Harisis said.

Harisis said most of the night was a blur because he and Brown were intoxicated, but he remembers going home, asking a friend who was not intoxicated to drive him and Brown to Wegmans and purchasing a few items at the grocery store.

The friend who drove Harisis and Brown to Wegmans was not charged with anything, both Harisis and Connellan said.

The two students made no further purchases with the credit card, Harisis said. He also said both he and Brown do not remember where they put the credit card or what happened to it.

It wasn’t until a few days later that Harisis and Brown realized something about the situation did not make sense. However, Harisis said he thought the man who gave them the credit card was just drunk, and the two of them did not think anything else of the incident until Monday night.

Police obtained a surveillance tape from Wegmans showing three males purchasing food items with the stolen credit card. Channel 9 News received the tape and aired it Monday night.

‘We were shocked to see ourselves on TV,’ Harisis said. ‘This wasn’t a malicious act. We didn’t realize we did anything wrong until we saw ‘Monday Night Football.”

Harisis said he and Brown drove downtown to the Syracuse Police Department on Monday night after seeing themselves on the tape on Channel 9 News.

The information that appeared on Channel 9 News was inaccurate and made the students look like fiends. Brown and Harisis were neither arrested nor charged with identity theft or stealing credit cards, Harisis said.

‘We weren’t arrested, by the way,’ Harisis said. ‘When I willingly drive to the office, I don’t consider this arrested.’

Harisis and Brown drove to the police station immediately to clear up any misunderstandings, he said. They were asked to return in the morning because the lead detective was not there, he said.

The next morning, both Harisis and Brown returned to the station to talk to the police. They were then issued an appearance ticket. Their hearing will be on Nov. 21, Harisis said.

Harisis said he had been up all night because he couldn’t sleep and was upset, but when he spoke with the officer in charge of the investigation, he told Harisis the charge wasn’t a big deal and the ticket is the equivalent of driving with a suspended license, Harisis said.

‘We were just ignorant and intoxicated,’ Harisis said. ‘We didn’t do anything in a malicious manner.’

Published on November 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm