Accounting graduate student Aaron Ashe said his truck was stolen from T Lot in early September.
He said he suspects thieves hauled his truck on a flat bed, since he had locked his vehicle, which was further protected by a security chip ignition and an alarm.
He said that after paying parking fees, doing his part in securing his vehicle and still losing thousands of dollars due to the theft of his truck, he hopes UNM is able to do more for the security of students and their property.
“I was really upset,” he said. “I have paid [parking] fees for the last six years, and they don’t even have security guards or cameras.”
Barbara Morck, director of the Department of Parking and Transportation Services, said that PATS is not responsible for security in the parking lots.
“Our drivers pay attention — our enforcement officers pay attention, in the scope of also doing our regular jobs,” she said.
One PATS shuttle driver was an eyewitness to the theft of freshman communications major Andrea Sisneros’ Jeep, Morck said. But because the suspect did not seem suspicious at the time, the eyewitness did not report the crime until after it was known that the vehicle had been stolen. Sisneros said the shuttle driver saw two men walk across the street to T Lot, look in her Jeep, open the door and drive off about 10 minutes before she arrived at the parking lot.
“It’s frustrating that we have to park there, but UNM can’t offer any sort of security,” Sisneros said. “We asked if there are any cameras, and the only ones are in the back [of the lot] to watch the [shuttle] buses.”
The topic of campus security cameras seems to be surprisingly confusing.
Morck said UNMPD is responsible for campus security, and UNM Information Technologies is responsible for all cameras on campus.
A representative for the UNMIT department said that although UNMIT is responsible for installing cameras on campus, the cameras are ordered, managed and maintained by each department. IT was unable to give statistics on the number of cameras and locations by the time of this story’s publication because each camera is the responsibility of the department it belongs to.
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PATS hires and pays for private security patrol for UNM’s remote parking lots — the South Lot and G/Q Lot — from an outside agency, Morck said. The security agency patrols Monday through Friday during regular school hours, which are the times that auto burglary and theft is most frequent, she said. Although PATS hires its own private security guards, all parking lots are still under the jurisdiction of UNMPD.
Last week UNMPD attempted to recover video from a camera at Centennial Engineering in reference to motorcycles that were stolen on two consecutive days in October, but the camera has been out of order for some time due to a virus, according to Lt. Tim Stump, UNMPD spokesman.
He said UNMPD does its best to protect students’ property while on campus. Officers collect report data and increase patrols in parking lots with the highest rates of auto theft, conduct directed patrol activities with increased officers and plain-clothed officers, and check on lots as many times as possible throughout their shifts.
When an auto theft has occurred, after gathering the pertinent information from the owner, UNMPD puts out an alert to all officers and the surrounding agencies and enters the information into the National Crime Information Center database.
UNMPD, with the help of other agencies, recovered 20 of the 41 cars that were stolen in 2013, and 14 of the 28 stolen cars have been recovered for this year. The department does not have statistics on the arrests made in connection to the recovered vehicles.
Stump said using alarms, kill switches and steering wheel locks, not leaving any valuables in a vehicle, securing doors and windows and reporting all suspicious activity immediately are some of the best ways to keep property with its owner.
“The most preventative measures should be taken, but our big picture is always going to be geared toward reduction,” Stump said. “We will continue to educate and inform incoming classes [of students] and reiterate to the returning classes.”
Erika Eddy is a freelance writer for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @erika_eddy.
