UI student accused of stealing bartender’s phone after getting kicked out of first of two bars

Lang
9/2/22

A University of Iowa student is accused of stealing a bartender’s phone after getting kicked out of the first of two bars early Friday morning.

Iowa City Police say 22-year-old Tate Friedly of Waterloo had been told to leave the Sports Column just after 1:15am when he reached behind the bar, grabbed the bartender’s phone and fled the scene. The phone reportedly fell out of Friedly’s pocket after he was kicked out of El Ray’s Live & Dive on Iowa Avenue a short time later. Police say El Ray’s staff then escorted Friedly back to the Sports Column, where he was detained until officers could arrive.

Investigators say Friedly showed multiple signs of intoxication. They report he kept repeating the same phrase about officers taking him home, and how he lived at “the intersection of 102 and Market or Clinton and Market”. He refused portable breath testing.

Friedly is charged with 3rd Degree Theft and Public Intoxication. If convicted on both charges, he faces a maximum of 25 months in jail.