By Elijah Horman
Two automobile thefts happened around the William Peace University campus within two weeks this semester, on Aug. 24 and Sept. 9. In addition, two more thefts occurred at off-campus housing, Village Green. That marks four students this year who had their automobile stolen and in some cases severely damaged.
This development has prompted concern about the security of campus. So far this year two thefts were reported on campus according to the Office of Public Safety: one in the Davidson parking lot and one in the Main parking lot. In one case, the student left the door unlocked with the keys in their car, and in another the student had their backpack stolen off campus with their keys and wallet inside.
In both on-campus cases, the vehicle was recovered mostly undamaged. In the case of one of the Village Green residents, though, the vehicle was severely damaged.
Director of Public Safety Micheal John has taken note of the recent events and is taking action to prevent further crimes from taking place.
“Compared to last year we are up by two and in both cases where we had thefts of vehicles we had students actually leave their keys in the vehicle,” said John.
In response to the thefts, Public Safety sent out an email through the Pacer Alert system giving some details of the event and advice to reduce the risk of a break in. This included locking doors and windows, taking valuables with you and not leaving keys in the car.
“Across the board in North Carolina, we’ve had a tremendous increase in automobile break ins,” said John, “but across the board is that folks are going into vehicles that were left unlocked, rifling through them and stealing mostly cash or electronic devices that are left unattended.”
In addition to encouraging students to take precautions, Public Safety has taken some additional measures to prevent potential thefts. According to John, Public Safety has increased the amount of patrols in order to dissuade potential thieves and catch any cars that may be at higher risk.
John also expressed interest in extending the security camera system to the Delway Lot, which, notably, is not monitored and is peppered with signs warning people as such. The issue is that the school WIFI network doesn’t extend to that parking lot, and thus it would not be currently possible to install wireless security cameras and connect them back to the office. Should the network be extended, however, this may be a possibility.
Whether these thefts are a fluke or not, it remains important for both the students to be vigilant in protecting their belongings and for administration to ensure a safe environment.