Wonder what ever happened to your roommate’s favorite bong? Or the fireworks you fired out the window one night?

If a University Police officer confiscated your contraband, those items probably are still in the property room at the campus police station, 1819 Hinman Ave.

From the ground floor, a creaking wooden staircase leads to the basement of the station, which was once a house.

The property room is about the size of a walk-in closet. Grey metal shelves, dotted with white office boxes, line the walls. In brown bags inside the boxes is UP’s collection of fake identifications, fireworks, drug paraphernalia and dozens of other objects.

Three types of items find their way into the property room: evidence, confiscated belongings and lost or found property.

A property room is a mainstay of police stations. According to Asst. Chief Daniel McAleer of UP, improper cataloging of evidence could result in a judge dismissing a case.

“The court requires that when police take property into custody … (they) are able to show who took it,” he said.

In fact, the contents of the property room are so important that of the 24 UP officers, only McAleer and the property custodian have keys to the room.

On Friday afternoon, a set of bolt cutters lay on the bottom left shelf. The oversized shears were seized in December when officers stopped an attempted bike theft over winter break.

In another box, three hypodermic syringes were catalogued in a white envelope. There were also glass pipes, rolling papers, an electronic scale and a razor seized from an NU student last May.

With about two new items inventoried each week, the property room can get full, McAleer said. The room is purged at least three times a year, he said. Depending on court orders, evidence is either destroyed or returned to its owner.

More expensive lost and found items are destroyed or donated after 60 days. Non-valuable items, such as gloves or keys, are turned over to the Norris University Center within days of being found.

Even with these purges, 17 boxes were in the room last week, including several cases of firearms. Since these weapons must be ground into powder, they will remain in the station until they can be destroyed.

On Friday, one of the newest pieces of property was an NU professor’s license plate that UP officers found on Sherman Avenue.

Despite its often outrageous contents, the real strength of the property room is its capacity to store evidence for police testimony in court.

On one shelf was a yellow box of fireworks. These “Bad Bombs” were confiscated because operating fireworks in Evanston is always illegal without a permit.

“It’s pretty hard when you’re blowing those things out the window to deny what’s going on,” McAleer said.

Reach Daniella Cheslow at [email protected].