As a sophomore who lives a few blocks away from campus, using my bike as my main form of transportation is very convenient. I work in Baker Engineering building and ride my bike to and from work most every day, even in the cold. I leave my bike locked up on the south side of Baker and have never had a problem with it being vandalized, for which I am grateful. It would appear to me the campus police are doing their job in protecting my bike.

However, about a week before winter break, I locked my bike up outside Baker, and upon my return, I found my combination was not what I thought it was. After making a few calls, I discovered a friend had changed the combination on me as a joke, and undoubtedly, he forgot what he changed it to. I decided it would be safe to leave my bike there for winter break.

Upon return to school Monday, I felt great relief to see my bike still locked up without any damage. After work, I went out with my cable cutters and started cutting my bike lock. It was a difficult task and took me about 10 minutes before I finally broke through the cable. I then stuffed the broken lock in my backpack and rode off with my bike.

There’s something about this that bothers me. As I was cutting my lock, I was in plain view of three janitors smoking outside Baker and a multitude of students passing by. I wouldn’t expect any of them to stop me from cutting the lock off a bike, but I also saw two Campus Police officers go by me, too. I was sure one of the two officers would have stopped to see if the bike belonged to me, but they did nothing.

During my 10-minute ordeal of cutting the cable lock, I shouted out a few profanities, and even took a few swings with the cutters to break through the cable all the way. I wasn’t being sneaky and quiet about it. I was actually afraid somebody was going to call the cops on me.

I want to know why janitors who saw me didn’t call campus police to report suspicious behavior. I want to know why so many students walked by and did nothing. I want to know why two Campus Police officers went by and didn’t even question me as to what I was doing. I want to know why it was so easy to steal my own bike.

Buddy Hummlersophomore in CIS