Campus Crime Increases During the Holiday Season

By Megan McLuckie

A typical college student lives casually, locking the door to his house only when he remembers to. College students are new to being on their own and parents aren’t around to check the house to make sure everything is locked and secure.

Sgt. Terry Winters, supervisor for the Muncie Police Department Criminal Investigations Division, says that police officers deal with crime on a daily basis. "The general public sees crime everyday on the news but it doesn't mean as much until you become a victim of crime and then they become more aware of it along with feeling violated,” Winters says.

Fortunately, campus statistics as well as the city of Muncie’s statistics have not significantly changed since last year. However, it is important for students to realize that anything is possible and not everyone can be trusted. Sgt. Winters says he sees cases involving burglaries, thefts, fraud, battery and domestic battery everyday.

Hester Mitchell, member and employee of the United Methodist Church on Riverside Ave. in Muncie, Ind., said the church’s safe was broken into this fall. Mitchell has been going to that church all her life and nothing like that has ever happened. The robbers got an undetermined amount of money from donated checks and anywhere from $300 to $500 in donated cash.

“Someone must have scouted that church because you would not have even known that safe was there,” Mitchell says.

Ball State student Aly Tennant says during the first week of school about 20 cars in her neighborhood, just behind the campus village, had their tires slashed and her living room window was broken.

Ball State student Kyle O’Malley had his car broken into the weekend before Halloween. His doors were locked, but somebody was able to pry the door open with a crowbar and walk away with a pair of shoes, a sweater, a pocketknife and his wallet. He found out later $200 had been withdrawn from his account.

According to Winters, when Ball State students return in the fall there is a slight increase in crime.

"When students go home for holidays we sometimes see an increase in burglaries. With approaching holidays we will see an increase in robberies and shoplifting,” Winters says.

Mitchell says that she thinks things will continue to get worse.

“It might be the economy,” she said. She can see by working food drives that more and more people are in need of food this year.

Gene Burton, Director of Public Safety at BSU says, “College students have been considered targets for crime for several reasons. Sometimes, because of their age and lack of experience, students sometimes don't take the necessary precautions to protect their property from theft.”

A person's home and other possessions can never be fully burglar proof, but creating obstacles and increasing the path of resistance is key to providing the best safety precautions.