It is no secret that Parkland is not one of the safest places in Tacoma, but students at PLU should be able to feel safe the majority of the time. In recent months there have been multiple car theft attempts and one actual theft. PLU says it has security cameras to prevent these events, but students at PLU cannot trust that the cameras will catch thefts that happen on campus.
Three of the thefts occurred in the first week of October and were all on Hyundai Elantras of various years. Clearly there is a specific target for these cars.
First-year MJ Montano is among the many students at PLU that look forward to taking a break by going home for the weekend. Montano was planning to head home on Thursday, when they discovered someone else had gone home with their Hyundai Elantra. They were left frantically searching everywhere, wondering where their car had gone.
At first, Montano thought they were imagining that their car had disappeared. They walked back and forth along the parking spaces like it was a dream. Montano remembers thinking, “huh maybe I just missed it a second time,” and after acceptance hit, “that’s really weird, I don’t see my car.”
After searching for almost 20 minutes, they called Campus Safety (CSAF) and met with them about the situation. CSAF said they would call Montano within the hour to give them more information after they checked the cameras. Later in the evening, Montano received a voicemail that said, “Unfortunately, our cameras cannot pick up a good angle to see the car at all whatsoever,” which left them even more confused than before.
The parking lot their car was in does not require parking permits. However, it is directly in front of a South Hall sign, and right next to Tingelstad Hall. Even though the car was less than a hundred feet away from both of these buildings, none of the car theft was caught on camera. This means none of the cars in that lot are likely within sight of a camera either. If any other situations were to happen in this area, there would likely be no evidence at all. This puts residents in both of these buildings at risk for their safety.
Weary after a number of phone calls, Montano located their car at a towing company. They later found out that their car had indeed been stolen, then left in reserved apartment parking and towed. It was reported that someone saw a person run out from the car, which is why the towing company was originally called.
Once found, Montano’s car was not in a pretty state. Back window bashed in, the steering wheel taken apart, and Montano’s portable charger tattered — used to hotwire the car. Nothing was stolen, much to Montano’s relief. A minor consolation, as there was a hefty bill for the fact that the car had been sitting in the impound lot for multiple days because Montano did not immediately notice that it was missing.
Luckily, Montano’s family had a different car they could use so Montano was not stranded on campus, coincidentally also a Hyundai Elantra. Regardless, Montano and their family were still left with thousands of dollars worth of repairs.
The second attempt on Montano’s car shows the severity of the issue. After coming back, they parked closer to the CSAF building in hopes that their car would be safer. Despite these efforts, they noticed that the keyhole on the outside of their car had become bent overnight. Once again, Montano was left wondering if their car would still be there the next time they went to leave campus.
Residents of both of these halls should be able to feel safe and confident that their cars are also relatively safe, or at least on camera. Nobody would typically expect that their portable charger would be used as the device to jump start their car. It is absurd that students have to worry about this. People often say that life happens, and these things are inevitable. But this only deflects responsibility.
How much more likely do you think car thefts would be if we actually caught the people at fault and held them responsible? Suddenly people would know you couldn’t get away with those types of crimes at or near PLU, and the attempts might decrease. Unfortunately, we don’t know if that would happen because there is not a proper security system put in place for a campus with hundreds of teenagers and very young adults living on it.
Students cannot feel safe where we live when the systems set up to protect us do not effectively do their jobs. It is infuriating and unacceptable.
There is clearly a problem with car thefts and the corresponding lack of cameras able to catch these thefts on tape. There should be an effort to make sure that all of the areas outside of and around all of the buildings on the PLU campus are properly equipped with enough security to catch any suspicious activity. This makes it so that even if these car thefts can’t be stopped every single time, which they cannot be, they can at least be caught.
