Author: Drew Jaffe
Despite a general decrease in both violent and non-violent crime in the Eagle Rock area over the past year, crime in the residential blocks surrounding Occidental has spiked by 35 percent in recent months, according to Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) reports. Two cars were reported stolen and multiple students had possessions stolen from their rooms.
According to the LAPD’s report, the most common crimes reported were robbery, burglary, assault and theft. Motor vehicle theft constituted over half of all reported incidents. While the majority of such crimes occurred off campus, some of them affected students on campus.
On Nov. 10, Campus Safety reports show that a car was stolen from in front of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon House.
“The vehicle was parked in front of the fraternity house located at 4909 Rangeview Avenue at approximately 4 p.m. on Saturday and was discovered missing Sunday at about 11:30 a.m.,” Director of Campus Security Holly Nieto said in a campus-wide email.
It cannot be confirmed whether Campus Safety has taken steps to address the matter. The Occidental Weekly attempted to contact Chief of Campus Safety Sean Kennedy, but he could not be reached for questions.
A second vehicle was reported missing to Campus Safety at 6:46 p.m. Nov. 26 from East Norris parking lot, according to a campus-wide email from Campus Safety. The theft was reported to LAPD and no suspects have been identified.
Other theft included electronic devices, which were stolen from students’ rooms. On Nov. 13, Campus Safety reported two laptops stolen from Newcomb Hall. According to an email from Nieto, no suspects were identified.
With no leads in the cases, one student afflicted by the recent crimes attempted to contact their thief through the “Oxy Confessions” Facebook page.
“675. To whoever took my pink MacBook from my room this morning while I was at breakfast, and my roommate was sleeping… Please, please just return it. I don’t even care who you are I just really need my computer back,” the anonymous poster wrote on Nov 16.
The incidents did not stop there, however. Later that week on Nov. 14, Campus Safety received a report that three cars had been broken into in the Upper Stearns parking lot.
Among the owners of the stolen cars was undeclared major Garrett Van (sophomore). Van had left his car in the parking lot over the weekend and received a call the following week that his car had been broken into. According to Van, his window had been smashed and his radio stolen.
“I was kind of surprised,” Van said. “I wasn’t that mad though. I was just kind of pissed that my window was broken.”
After the second vehicle theft incident, Campus Safety urged students in an email to lock their vehicles, keep them in well-lit areas and remove all personal belongings. Students who witness suspicious activity–lurking around parking areas, loitering around parked vehicles and peering into vehicles–are encouraged to report it to Campus Safety immediately.
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