If you do not want things stolen from you car, use common sense. That is the message Ohio State Police is sending.
After a recent trend of thefts from cars in northwest Columbus, OSU Police is highlighting a similar situation near campus.
“We have a similar issue on campus, where people target our parking garages or surface parking lots because we have a lot of vehicles on campus,” Captain Eric Whiteside said.
As of Jan. 14, there had been 10 thefts from autos on campus, Whiteside said. Most had taken place in parking garages.
According to the Transportation and Parking Services Web site, there are 31,702 parking spots, giving thieves numerous opportunities to steal valuables.
Items typically stolen include GPS devices, iPods, MP3 players, laptops, briefcases, CDs and money.
“They will go through and look down rows of cars,” Whiteside said, “and they will look for cars that have unsecured items in the passenger space or driver’s seat.”
The items are easy to access through rolled down windows and unlocked doors. If locked, thieves might commit a smash-and-grab — smashing the window, grabbing items and fleeing, Whiteside said.
Whiteside said it is not uncommon for thieves to punch a screwdriver into the keyhole and pop the door lock.
“It’s a little more difficult,” Whiteside said. “We don’t see that as frequently as the typical smash-and-grabs.”
That is what happened to Scott Bryant’s car, though. Bryant, admissions counselor and staff assistant at the OSU Moritz College of Law, had his stereo stolen from his car just off campus near 10th Avenue.
“Having never been the victim of a property crime before that incident, I felt surprisingly violated that someone had maliciously broken into my property and taken something that was mine,” Bryant said. “I remember being on edge the next few days, wondering if my car would be broken into again.”
OSU has security measures in place. OSU Police patrol all university property, Whiteside said. There is also a hybrid patrol of officers from OSU and Columbus Police, which focuses on thefts from autos in the University District.
Whiteside said there are security cameras on campus, in addition to the working relationship university police have with Transportation and Parking Services.
“We frequently give them the most recent crime information that we have,” Whiteside said. “We collaborate with them on strategies to reduce theft problems.”
Whiteside said the thieves could be anyone.
“We’ve arrested students for breaking into cars. We’ve arrested non-students for breaking into cars,” Whiteside said. What distinguishes the thieves from one another is where they target, how they access the cars and what they steal.
Theft is a consistent aspect of campus life, with little change in statistics from week to week.
“There might be some slight variations,” Whiteside said. “When these variations do occur, they are usually the result of one or two people targeting the campus area.”
OSU police offer a number of suggestions to minimize the risk of someone breaking into cars, such as securing valuables by hiding them under a seat or in the trunk or simply taking them out of the car.
“Lock your doors. Keep your windows rolled up. Don’t hide a key underneath your bumper — just common sense stuff,” Whiteside said, highlighting that people forget these things when focusing on their work or studies in a university environment.
Whiteside said that even when someone takes these measures, it is still possible for a thief to break into the car, pop the trunk and take everything inside.
“Or they might break into the car, see that there’s nothing to steal and move on to the next one,” Whiteside said.
Jason Branch, who graduated from OSU in 2009, said he knew there was nothing he could do when someone broke into his car.
“I felt very angry at the situation and at the person who was bold enough to break my window to steal,” Branch said.
Though the thief only took a winter hat — leaving two musical instruments inside — Branch is still concerned. He said he knows thefts from autos cannot be stopped.
“Nothing is foolproof,” Branch said. “Even with constant vigilance and preventative safety measures, it could still happen to anyone.”
