If you have an outstanding warrant, shining a laser at a passing police officer is not a subtle way to keep a low profile. 

That’s what Maricopa police say happened just before 2 a.m. Thursday, when an officer investigating a laser beam aimed at his cruiser canvassed Roosevelt and Garvey Avenues in the Maricopa Manor neighborhood and found a man standing in a front yard on Hathaway Avenue.

The officer identified him as Ray Vasquez, 29, and began a consensual conversation, according to a probable cause statement filed today in Maricopa Municipal Court.

A routine records check, prompted by the very laser the officer had gone to investigate, showed Vasquez had something called a “post-adjudication warrant” out of that court tied to a 2023 DUI case. That is a legal way of saying that the court wanted Vasquez back in court after he didn’t comply with part of his sentence. The unnamed Maricopa officer detained Vasquez while confirming the warrant, then arrested him and booked him into the Pinal County jail.

Court records show Vasquez pleaded guilty in November 2023 to a first-offense DUI with a related DUI count dismissed in Maricopa Municipal Court. Over the last two years, the case has ping-ponged through probation and treatment orders, missed hearings and mailed notices, leading to a warrant issued Sept. 12 with bond set at $1,816. 

No new charges tied to the laser pointer were listed in the booking paperwork. However, knowingly pointing a laser at a police officer is a felony in Arizona that carries between six months and two and a half years in prison for first-time offenders.