Fire extinguishers, friends and fines

I reckon you tell him that if he doesn't come forward, you'll tell them it was him. Who cares if he then doesn't pay it? It's his problem. He can't expect to go behaving like that and get away with it.

Do you know who the others are? Frankly I'd tell them too. Say you're going to be reporting the lot of them, and if he doesn't pay his share it's their burden to carry, which will make them think twice about siding with him next time he wants to destroy a building.

Might make you unpopular with him, but frankly you don't want friends like him, whether you think you do or not.

I have a feeling that doing so would make me quite unpopular with the rest of my friends also. Nobody likes a grass.

NB: Anonymous because I know there are a number of people from my year at the same uni who use TSR.

edit: Oh well, nevermind. If Ronald finds out I'll take the flak. (Though if a kind mod could make this anonymous then I'd appreciate it.)

In my halls of residence at uni, I have a circle of friends who are generally sensible people. However there is one friend, let's call him Ronald, who is a mature student (24, although he looks a lot younger) and has one of those 'live only for the minute' attitudes. I know that he was a cocaine addict in the past and did other things such as abusing his position working at a hospital by stealing drugs. These drugs were used to spike the drink of someone who had been stealing orange juice from him, and the guy ended up needing medical treatment.

Last term there was a lot of friction between some of my friends and Ronald due to his recreational drug use which had led to some arguments fuelled by drugs on his side. We thought the issue had been totally resolved but this term things have happened which have started to affect me. Last week he and some friends who are not in my close circle but in that group of people whom you might term acquaintances, went to one of the bars on campus and got drunk (something which I have come to expect from all my friends but I don't see it as a problem by itself). When they got back to halls (it might be important to note that a number of them don't live in these halls) they went crazy with fire extinguishers. They let off several water extinguishers and a powder one which completely filled a room. This left us with only a couple of extinguishers on our floor, which I thought was pretty irresponsible. The next day we were warned by email that further similar incidents would lead to fines being levied. Nothing happened for a week, but tonight the same group of people were up to it again, and I know that Ronald is the ringleader of them all. However, this time they went on what was really a rampage. They let off at least five extinguishers, which they left lying about the halls; tore up cardboard boxes and left them on the stairs; emptied a rubbish bin against someone's door; broke into a cupboard containing audio equipment (broadcasting to the main dining hall) and set it to emit white noise. There was probably some other stuff but I only glimpsed a bit of it while it was happening and saw the aftermath of the rest of it.

Now, I'm pretty sure that our section of the corridor is going to get fined for this collectively unless someone comes forward. Before I do anything I will wait for a notice to be given that we will be fined unless the perpetrators are found, however I really don't like the idea of turning in a supposed friend. Students tend to band together but money essentially rules my life and I have very little of it - a fine might well finish me off at the moment.

Does anyone have some opinions on this situation? Should I grass on Ronald or keep mum about it? I'm thinking that if a fine does come up then we should ask him to pay our shares, but I don't trust him to pay anything, to be honest. He ran up £5,000 in debt on credit cards a few years back and is basically on the run from his creditors. Apparently bailiffs knock on the door of his family home on a regular basis, but his parents tell them that Ronald is estranged from them and they have no idea where he is. Hopefully he will pay up for his friends but I doubt that he has any money to do so.

Yeah grass him up anonymously then no-one will know for certain that it was you, you don't get find and the doyle that is Ronald (who I am picturing to be a ginger tosser - thanks Harry Potter) can take all the flak and hopefully his nose will fall off due to his prior coke addiction.

God how old are you?
no one likes a dob?

screw that. laws and rules exist for a reason. this guy is a born loser. you need to learn some life lessons. count losers like this amongst your friends, make exucses for them, and they'll drag you down to their cess pit with them.

Listen to this guy ^^^^ he speaks the truth.

TBH, you sound a little scared of this guy?? I mean he's 24 so you know, he might be fairly daunting if you're only 18, but just imagine yourself when your 24 and compare yourself to him.

Also, who are the idiots that are letting the extinguishers off with him? I mean they sound even weaker than Ronald if they are being led to do such idiotic acts. Maybe you should take one of them up on it and get them to sort it out?

Anyway, £125 would be enough for me to make sure this guy ended up crying like a baby-even when I was 18.

You need to tell who was responsible, don't let this guy behave like this and get away with it. If it causes trouble, maybe it's better to get it over with now, because at 24 he's unlikely to suddenly start behaving responsibly next year, and that sort of damage to a house could cost substantially more and lose your friends their deposits. You're lucky that you've not been fined already, if what you described happened at my uni you'd get a lot more than a warning email for far less!