Officials are encouraging students to be careful about what they leave in their vehicles after seven cars were broken into on Noble Drive.
Campus police received a call at 7 a.m. Saturday, reporting a break-in in the Walker Hall dormitory parking along Noble Drive.
“These are your typical grab and smash crimes,” Police Chief Jennifer Rodgers said.
Students need to be aware of what they leave out in the open in their cars, Rodgers said.
“We’re having issues where students are leaving things like Michael Kors purses in their cars, and it’s making it appealing for people walking by to break in,” she said.
Noble Drive has cameras, Rodgers said, but many of them point toward the dorm and were unable to capture the thief. Rodgers instructed dispatchers to leave the cameras pointed toward Walker Hall for safety reasons.
Rodgers said she doesn’t see OCUPD purchasing more cameras for the parking area because the police department doesn’t have enough personnel to watch them.
“We don’t have a full-time person to monitor them. Their attention is divided between two screens that are split between 25 cameras on each. There’s only so much you can watch at one time,” she said.
Short staffing is an ongoing issue in the campus police department, Rodgers said.
“I went back and looked at the officer’s activity, and they were on the other side of campus when the call came in. It’s just another point that we can’t be everywhere at once,” she said. “We have to increase our patrols. I’m asking for an increase in staff.”
Ellie Howell, psychology freshman, owns one of the cars that was broken into.
“My car alarm went off in the middle of the night because I got a notification from my Subaru app, but I guess it stopped because I didn’t wake up,” she said. “Then the OCU Police Department called me that morning at eight, and it woke me up. They told me that my car had been broken into.”
The thief stole some gift cards from her wallet and her favorite jacket, Howell said.
“It was a little unsettling because I think a lot of times we, as students, assume incidents like this won’t happen to us, and then they do,” Howell said. “Things like this could happen to anyone. So just always be careful and make sure you don’t have anything valuable that can be seen in your car.”
The university is not liable for the break-ins, Rodgers said.
“It’s up to the students’ insurance companies to pay for the stolen items or damages,” she said.
In the past, the Flamingo Apartments across the street from Walker Hall have had break-ins, Rodgers said. Students also should be wary of interacting with people walking around the area, she said.
“We have been stopping a lot of people on campus that do not belong,” she said. “We have identified a lot of people on campus who are on drugs.”
OCUPD is looking into putting a fence or barrier between 23rd Street and Noble Drive, Rodgers said.
“It’s not something that could happen right away because we don’t have the budget for it at this point,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers said police have no leads at this point as to who the thief is, but she doesn’t think it is a student.
Rodgers said officers have noticed people who walk along the street often walk down Noble Drive instead of 23rd Street.
“I’ve asked our officers to be more vigilant in stopping people,” Rodgers said. “We’re going to end up stopping a few students along the way, but they can just show us their StarCard like they always do.”
Rodgers said students should always be aware of their surroundings and contact OCUPD in an emergency situation.
“We rely on the students to call us and let us know what’s happening,” she said.
Students may call OCUPD at 405-208-5911 for emergencies or 405-208-5001 for nonemergency matters.
Contributing: Staff Writer Dru Norton
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