The number of car burglaries, bicycle thefts and backpack thefts on campus has increased sharply since students returned from spring break, and it looks to continue through the end of the semester, said Kristi Hosea, a crime prevention officer with the University Police Department.
“Those that steal, whether they come from inside or outside of the community, start to take more because the candy jar is starting to get empty,” Hosea said. “If people are planning on doing any stealing they are going to do so when there is more to steal, before students go home for the summer.”
At least 15 bicycles have been stolen since students returned on March 20, Hosea said. Since the beginning of the fall semester about 150 bicycles have been stolen, she said, and at this point last school year, 100 bicycle thefts had taken place.
Past statistics indicate more bikes will be stolen by the end of the semester. In 2005, 250 bicycles had been stolen by April, but the number rose to 356 by May 13.
Hosea suggested students use two bicycle locks, and make sure all parts of the bike are locked, not just the frame or tires.
“The way I look at it, if there are two bikes next to each other they are going to take the one with one lock or the thinner of the two,” Hosea said.
Students should also engrave their driver’s license number on their bikes, she said. BikeSAFE, a student-run bicycle theft prevention organization devoted to preventing theft on the Texas A&M campus and increasing public awareness of on campus thefts, provides free bicycle engraving once a month for students. More than 75 bikes were engraved at the last engraving.
Stephen Longbottom, president of BikeSAFE, said students do not put forth enough effort to protect their bikes.
“It’s a pretty big problem on campus,” he said.
In addition to the thefts, 17 cars have been burglarized on campus since March 7, including 10 cars burglarized March 9.
Car burglaries are usually more of a problem off campus at apartment complex parking lots and on streets because the Bryan and College Station Police Departments do not have the resources to patrol lots as frequently as the UPD, Hosea said.
Generally, stereo equipment is stolen from the cars, but thieves will take anything they can get their hands on, Hosea said. Thieves tend to enter the cars by breaking windows, she said.
Jamie Edwards, a junior management major, had his stereo stolen from his car while it was parked in PA 40. Edwards said he felt that there was little he could do to protect his car from burglary aside from purchasing an expensive alarm.
“My CD player was gone and I had to buy a new lock for my door,” he said. “They clearly knew what they were doing because they jammed through the lock and unlocked it.”
There are ways students can prevent vehicle thefts, Hosea said.
“If students have the removable stereos and speakers and woofers and the whole nine yards we request that they remove them and engrave their driver’s license number on item,” Hosea said.