Prowlers plague cars on campus

There has been an increase of car break-ins on the Mt. Hood campus over the past month, according to campus Public Safety officials.

On May 15 alone there were five car break-ins reported and, according to Wayne Feagle, manager of Public Safety, they have become a regular occurrence.

He said there doesn’t seem to be any pattern, except for one.

“It’s more of people leaving stuff out in plain view. Leaving stuff in the car is what it is,” said Feagle. “If we can get people to not leave stuff in the car that would prevent it, that’s how easy it is.”

Feagle said usually a thief will look first for unlocked cars. In the most recent incidents, locked cars have had their windows broken, however.

Paris Norris, ASG director of public safety and campus sustainability, said there are more steps to protecting yourself and others on campus.

“Always be on the lookout for similar threats around you,” Norris said. “You may very well be the Good Samaritan (who) spots a break-in … and alerts Public Safety to help stop it.”

Items reported taken from vehicles includes money, personally identifiable information (state identification, credit cards, and mail), laptops, and entire school bags.

In a campuswide email, Feagle recommends that people leave their cars “showroom clean” and to avoid leaving anything that even looks valuable in plain sight.