Everyone knows about the first baby of the year, but how about the first person booked into jail?

For 2007 in Douglas County, it was a 23-year-old Humboldt man arrested for drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Police alleged he fled after his pickup truck collided with another truck around 10:45 p.m. Sunday at 23rd and Alabama streets.

New Year’s Eve sparked crime throughout Lawrence that included vandalized mailboxes, some bar disturbances and plenty of DUI arrests.

By 4 a.m. Monday, Lawrence Police already had taken 35 reports for 2007.

“I know the officers were busy on New Year’s Eve,” Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman Kim Murphree said.

Some of the crimes:

¢ The most unusual report came from the Pool Room, 925 Iowa, where someone called police to report that a bar patron was partying in a short-sleeved shirt that appeared to be from a Lawrence police uniform.

Police seized the shirt and arrested the man on warrants from Municipal Court.

“Officers are trying to determine what the origin is of the shirt – whether it’s our issue or something made to look like our issue,” Murphree said. “We haven’t been able to identify an officer missing a shirt at this time.”

¢ Police responded to alcohol-related fights at two bars: one at 11:40 p.m. Sunday at Johnny’s Tavern, 401 N. Second St., and another at 1:15 a.m. Monday at Abe & Jake’s Landing, 8 E. Sixth St. Both fights involved acquaintances, and neither led to serious injuries.

¢ Residents at Chipperfield homeowners association, a 40-unit housing complex near 27th Street and Crestline Drive in southern Lawrence, were upset that someone smashed parts of a wooden privacy fence at their complex early Monday. Board member Jerry Sherman, 79, said he thinks the culprits had been partying at an adjacent complex the previous night.

“They were shooting fireworks. Apparently they decided that wasn’t loud enough or destructive enough,” Sherman said.

He said it’s the second time the fence has been damaged after a party in the past month. He estimated the latest incident caused $100 worth of damage.

“Kids will be kids, but there’s got to be a limit to how much destruction they’re allowed to do,” he said.

¢ At 3:55 a.m. Monday, a 23-year-old Lawrence man was turning south onto Kasold Drive from eastbound Clinton Parkway when he ran over the road median and destroyed a tire. He was one of the 12 people booked into the Douglas County Jail for drunken driving charges Sunday night and Monday morning. Eight of those drivers were arrested by Lawrence police, three were arrested by the Kansas Highway Patrol and one was arrested by Eudora police.

¢ At least two people had their mailboxes damaged by vandals early Monday in the 1300 and 1400 blocks of Lawrence Avenue.