INDReporter

For 4 Phi Kappa Psi boys, this may be the worst spring break ever

by Patrick Flanagan

Spring break for four freshman frat boys from LSU met a tragic ending Monday as they took a break from the books and attempted to make their way through Alabama en route to a week of much-needed debauchery on the sandy beaches of Gulf Shores.

Photos from the Mobile County Sheriff's Office via The Advocate

Spring break for four freshman frat boys from LSU met a tragic ending Monday as they took a break from the books and attempted to make their way through Alabama en route to a week of much-needed debauchery on the sandy beaches of Gulf Shores.

And for the Mobile Country Sheriff’s Office’s vice squad (it was really just a couple of deputies patrolling their stretch of Interstate10), it would be a chance encounter with a trailer traveling with Louisiana plates and an expired tag that would ultimately lead to what could very well be one of their biggest busts on record.

The truck towing the trailer with expired tags, according to this report from The Advocate, contained Brandon Barber, Carson Buckner, Hunter Coker and Harrison Coogan, all members of LSU’s freshman class. The four freshman — none over the age of 19 — were also recently inducted as members of the now-infamous Phi Kappa Psi fraternity — the same frat targeted in Rolling Stone’s controversial November cover story, “A Rape on Campus,” about an alleged gang rape by Phi Kappa Psi members at the University of West Virginia. (That article has since been discredited by other members of the media, and in addition to a coming lawsuit from the frat, it was most recently dubbed a “journalistic failure” on the part of Rolling Stone in a study published days ago by Columbia University’s school of journalism.)

But back to Monday’s encounter between the frat’s newest members and the Mobile County Sheriff’s deputies. According to The Advocate’s report, it wouldn't end well for the frat boys:

The students, Harrison Coogan, 18; Brandon Barber, 19; Hunter Coker, 18; and Carson Buckner, 19, were on Interstate 10 in a Ford pickup that was towing a trailer with an expired tag when they were stopped by deputies, said Lori Myles, a Mobile County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

During the stop, the pickup’s driver gave deputies consent to search the trailer, where authorities found nearly 2,000 beers, five liters of boxed wine and eight bottles of liquor, Myles said.

The students, who identified themselves to deputies as fraternity members, were en route to the beach to meet “a larger group of people for the week of spring break,” Myles said.

Fortunately, none of the students had been imbibing at the time of the stop, and they were eventually issued citations and allowed to get back to their spring break plans. But here’s where the story gets tragic: They would be going to Gulf Shores empty-handed. That left one of the boy's parents, who learned of Monday's traffic stop during a phone call from The Advocate, saying he was “pretty shocked and confused” by it all, telling the reporter, “I’m really surprised.”

For the deputies, Monday’s routine stop would ultimately lead to the confiscation of approximately 1,908 cans of Natty Light, 60 bottles of Corona, five boxes of Franzia wine, and eight bottles of assorted liquors, including everything from tequila to rum, vodka and of course whiskey.

Returning to the station Monday with such a massive haul, the unnamed sheriff’s deputies must have (and we’re just speculating here) received a king’s welcome by their brothers and sisters in blue. Yet, one important aspect remains unclear: What will become of Monday’s payload? With more than 100 cases of beer and assorted liquors and wines no longer heading for the beaches of Gulf Shores, we’re hoping at the very least that Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran doesn’t let it all go to waste (Mobile County’s policy on the seizure of spirits remains unclear at this time).

As for the four LSU frat boys, the beer bongs and body shots may just have to wait for next year. Cheers!