University officials paid $400 to fix a student’s broken windshield.
Austin Hogue, music education sophomore, parked by Jim Wade Stadium on Feb. 2 because the parking lot at Cokesbury Court Apartments was full. The next morning he found his back windshield broken.
“I walk out and immediately see a hole in my windshield,” Hogue said. “I called campus PD, and, while I was waiting for them to get there, I talked to one of the guys running the concession stand.”
Freshman Pitcher Caleb Evans was running the concession stand at the time. He told Hogue what happened.
“A dude hit a foul ball, and the ball hit the back of the windshield and broke it,” Evans said. “Per standard procedure, the other team went and got the ball and put it back into play.”
Hogue said he was upset because nobody let him know that his car was damaged. Evans said this is to be expected.
“If you park next to a baseball field during a baseball game, you’re probably going to get hit by a foul ball,” Evans said. “In fact, there’s a sign at the entrance of the parking lot he was parked in that says ‘Beware of foul balls,’ so I don’t have much sympathy.”
Coach Denney Crabaugh said he doesn’t encourage players to contact campus police. He encourages students whose car is damaged to contact campus police themselves to file a report.
When a police officer arrived, he asked Hogue questions and took pictures.
“We went to that location and took a damage to private property report so that if he needed to file a claim on his insurance, that would help him to do that,” Police Chief Jennifer Rodgers said.
The police officer also gave Risk Manager Lee Brown’s number to Hogue.
“I contacted, him and he kind of gave me the ‘well, you should’ve seen the signs,’” Hogue said. “The issue I had with it is there is one (sign) for the lot across the street, and the only other sign is over by a dumpster and someone can park in front of it.”
The car’s insurance was through Hogue’s mother, so she called Brown a few days later and questioned him about the situation.
“It wasn’t until his mother called that we understood that he had some grand concerns regarding the replacement of his back glass,” Brown said.
Hogue’s mother also emailed Brown a list of concerns, which he forwarded to the school’s counsel.
“She brought some valid points to our attention that we’re absolutely going to address,” Brown said. “In the meantime, we’ve also addressed his back glass.”
Hogue said his windshield was tinted and had a defroster so it cost $400, a higher cost than the average replacement.
Hogue’s concerns included lack of signage, little notification of baseball season, lack of concern by players, lack of effort to contact campus police, and the fact that someone reached into their car to get the ball.
“A lot of people were telling me that was breaking and entering,” Hogue said. “I consider it that, but I’m not going to chase someone down for it.”
Evans said stray baseballs always are retrieved.
“The pitchers have extra running if we can’t find the ball, so the ball pretty much always gets found one way or another,” he said.
Entering another person’s property is never okay, Brown said. He said officials have addressed the issue with athletics officials.
“That’s one thing that we’re absolutely upset with,” he said. “It looks as though someone entered his vehicle either through the door or through the glass itself.”
Brown said they will put up more signage around the parking lot where Hogue was parked and the lot west of Henry J. Freede Wellness and Activity Center.
“I feel like they made a mistake, and now they’re like, ‘alright, we’ll pay for your windshield, but next time it happens, now we have signs,’” Hogue said. “They solved it to where it was fixed by liability, not by student safety or student property concerns.”
Officials discussed steps to take in case this happens again with athletics officials, Brown said.
“Notify your coach,” he said. “Then notify the police department so they can come out, take a report and identify the owner of the vehicle. The baseball is lost until we can retrieve it from the owner of the vehicle because its basically the owner’s property now that you’ve put it there.”
Chief Rodgers said police officers are always willing to help students in this situation, and she’s open to being part of a protocol for situations like this.
“There apparently is a need for them to call us,” she said. “We certainly would be glad to look up the number and locate the student and see if we can help them with the situation at the time.”
Hogue said he encourages students not to park by the baseball field.
“It’s just too much of a liability, especially when most students don’t know when baseball games are going to happen,” he said. “They just need to get more netting up.”
Hogue said officials told him new netting would cost too much money.
Coach Crabaugh said more netting wouldn’t solve the issue.
“There’s no way you can 100 percent guarantee that a car cannot be hit by a baseball unless we build a big dome where it’s all inside,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.”
Crabaugh also said he encourages students to park elsewhere.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened, and I wish there was some way we can ensure that it won’t ever happen, but we can’t,” he said. “Students parking in parking lots by the baseball field need to be aware of that. That is a potential risk. I say park as far away as you can.”
Leave a Reply