By: Will Harper, Staff Writer
With a new semester beginning, students on Wofford’s campus are still concerned about a major issue that has proven to be a problem consistently: car break-ins. Over the past eight months, there have been six instances of cars being broken into on campus, with personal items or even the cars themselves being stolen. Campus Safety, the students and administration have been working together to prevent these occurrences, but it continues to be an issue.
There were a few break-ins over the summer in the Village parking lot, including an incident on July 25th where a backpack, cup holders and pocket change was stolen. Video cameras saw some of the incident, and it was reported that four men who were not Wofford students perpetrated the crime. The backpack was recovered, while the cup holders and change were not found. This is still an ongoing investigation. There were also two break-ins at the physical plant, located right behind the Greek Row. Both happened in late June, and some unspecified valuable items were taken from the cars each time.
Campus Safety found that the consistent factor amidst the different break-ins was all the cars affected were left unlocked. As such, Campus Safety encourages all students and faculty to lock their cars and have alarm systems active when leaving their cars on campus overnight. If one drives a Jeep or convertible, put the top up overnight. Also students should take valuables with them and make sure there are no items of potential interest or value visible within your car.
To increase security measures, Campo placed more cameras throughout campus. The Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts is equipped with multiple security cameras, and the parking areas around campus have had more extensive camera coverage installed. In fact, a new camera helped solve a hit and run case in the Village recently. Campo has also started patrolling more, especially at night. They hope that an increased presence will decrease crime around campus.
As students, we have a role to play as well. If someone is in the parking lot checking car-door handles, call Campus Safety at 864-597-4911. Campus Safety highly recommends that all students save this number in their phones in case of emergency. By calling, officers are provided valuable help in finding the perpetrators and they can work with Spartanburg PD to find the stolen items faster and more efficiently.
No one wants their car broken into. Let’s stop this problem before it gets any worse. So if your phone charger, $4.72 in change, and rather intricate systems to use an auxiliary cord are all important to you (and to potential thieves), keep those cars locked, arm the alarms, and take the really important stuff back to the dorm.