A dozen cars have been reported stolen near campus in the past two weeks, and police say a group of teens might be responsible.
Seven cars were stolen Tuesday, and two more on Wednesday, continuing the string of thefts that started Wednesday, Feb. 18.
"I would say seven or eight of them probably are related," said Sgt. Todd Anderson of the Columbus Division of Police Auto Theft Unit. "It could be initiation for gangs, it could be initiation for other things, that they're trying to prove a point, we just don't know."
Many of the cars have been stolen from the same areas: West Norwich Avenue, North High Street, West Ninth Avenue, and two stolen cars were abandoned in the same area on West Maynard Avenue.
In the middle of the day on Friday, Feb. 20, the thieves abandoned a stolen car in the parking lot of a Maynard Avenue apartment complex, took the tires and rims, then stole a student's car from the lot.
Kaylan Clevinger, a fifth-year OSU student in nutrition, discovered the abandoned car next to her parking spot, where her car had been stolen. She found her car later the same day parked behind a garage on Wyandotte Avenue, sitting on cinderblocks. The thieves had stolen the tires, rims and the stereo from her car.
"They also must have gone on a joyride because my stabilizer linkage was snapped in half," Clevinger said. "They're not only stealing my car, they're having fun with it too."
Anderson said police have noticed this trend in other thefts.
"They want the wheels or they want the radios out of them, so they take them somewhere else and they take that stuff off of them."
Most of the cars that have been stolen are older model cars, between 12 and 14 years old, which makes them easier to steal, Anderson said.
"This isn't anything professional at all," he said. "These cars are easy to stick with a screwdriver: break the steering column, stick the screwdriver down there, start right up."
Because these are easier thefts, police think teens between 15 and 19 years old are probably responsible. "There are some people of interest we're looking at," Anderson said.
The campus area is not alone in its recent rash of car thefts.
The German Village area, near South High Street and West Whittier Avenue, has also been a target for auto theft.
Anderson said police are also investigating a group of teens that might be responsible for those thefts, but said those teens are not suspects in the campus auto thefts.
Collin Binkley can be reached at binkley.44@osu.edu.
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