Protecting yourself from VCU’s number one crime

Larceny, or theft, is a weekly occurrence on VCU’s campus, according to Sargeant Nicole Dailey with the VCU Police. Books, bags, and bikes are among the most popular items stolen.

According to the 2007 VCU Annual Security Report, there were 217 reported cases of larceny in 2006, making larceny the number one crime on VCU’s campus.

One VCU student has been a victim of this crime first-hand. Ashley Tipton, a student at VCU, had money stolen from her when she left it unattended in the Cabell Library.

“I was in the library, and it was kinda like a “Late Nite, All Nite” thing going on and I left to go to the restroom and I came back, and I realized that the money out of my wallet was gone,” says Tipton. “I wasn’t gone for a long time, so someone essentially went to my bag, took the money out of my wallet, and surprisingly no one saw it.”

She didn’t think leaving her stuff behind while making a trip to the restroom was a big deal. Tipton felt her items were safe because there were security cameras installed in the building.

Tipton says, “I never thought that anything like that would happen to me. Since there are cameras in the lab downstairs I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. I just thought it was me going to the bathroom and coming right back. I didn’t want to take all my stuff to the bathroom and all the way back… The police officers said they looked at the footage, and they said that where the camera was placed in the lab it didn’t show the area that I was sitting in.”

The risk of valuables being stolen from the library is higher around exam time. This is because more students pack into the library to study. Students are also more likely during extended study sessions to leave their items unattended while taking a restroom break or to get something to drink.

Sergeant Dailey from VCU Police advises students to, “come to one of our community police offices and get an engraver. They’ll help you engrave your iPod, your laptop, your bicycle.”

Engraving your valuables and electronics allows police officers to identify an item as belonging to you as soon as it is recovered, if stolen. The engraving may also deter a thief from taking your item because he or she knows that it could be more easily determined as stolen.

Sergeant Dailey goes on to talk about a way to protect your bike when it’s stolen. “We have a bicycle registration that we do because that’s another high larceny crime,” says Dailey.

Dailey also encourages students to lock their bikes up with a U-lock, instead of a cable lock which can be cut. A U-lock is a U-shaped metal lock which connects a bike to a bike rack without the likelihood of a thief easily cutting it like they may a cable lock.