Atwater vandalism, theft on the rise

Students and visitors parking in the Atwater Garage beware. \nRecently, the Atwater Garage, located on Faculty Drive between 3rd Street and Atwater Avenue, has been the target of vandalism and theft, with six incidents reported on Feb. 17-18. \nMany of the targeted cars were located on the upper levels of the garage. \n"The vantage point is that they picked the higher levels to target cars because they have a better view of seeing police cars coming into the area," IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said. "Although we have stepped up patrol around there a little, it kind of hampers our surveillance."\nMinger said the damage ranges from key scratches to occurrences of theft. They are all still under investigation.\n"Some of the damage is just paint scratches," he said. "Other times it seems as though they were trying to pry things out of the dashboard."\nSenior Nicole Carroccio's car was broken in to, and the window of her Jeep Wranger was slashed open on Feb. 17.\n"They broke open the center lock box, and they took the face plate out of it," she said. "Then they took the plastic piece that's on the dashboard, the part that covers the stereo."\nCarroccio said this isn't the first time there has been a problem at Atwater. \n"This happens about every four weeks, there are about 25 girls in the house that have had their cars broken into this year," she said. "I would normally say it's not a big deal, but we pay $300 dollars a year to park in that garage, and one of us could get hurt. I wish they would put in a camera, even a fake one."\nMinger said the police have received one car description, but he is not certain enough to release it as suspect. After receiving a couple of calls about the incidents, several police were dispatched to the garage to check all of the cars for other incidents of vandalism or theft. \n"What we've tried to do is advise people, especially in the surrounding Greek houses, that should they see, hear or suspect anything more they should contact us," Minger said. "We are hoping that no matter how insignificant they think the noise or activity is that they report it."\nCarroccio said she feels as though her incident is not being taken seriously.\n"When I called the police to find out about what happened to my car, they told me they didn't see anything else suspicious around the car," Carroccio said. "I looked at my car, and there was a handprint on the windshield that I know is not mine. So, I called them and told them suggesting they come and dust the car for some type of a print, and nobody ever called me or came to check on it."\nAll of the cases are gone over very thoroughly and according to procedure, Minger said.\n"In our report, the officer clearly stated that he checked for fingerprints inside and outside of the car but was unsuccessful in doing so," Minger said. "It's not quite like TV. A fingerprint isn't always a solid lead. Sometimes a mark on the car doesn't mean we can pull a fingerprint, and a fingerprint doesn't always match up to anyone." \nCarroccio said despite her efforts to try and help police, she doesn't feel they are really trying to find who is breaking into the cars.\n"I spoke to a girl in my house a few days ago, and she said she saw a few guys in the garage at 2 a.m., so I told her to call the police," Carroccio said. "She gave the information to the lady on the phone, and they never called and followed up, they never told me that they had a possible lead, nothing ever came of it that I know of."\nWhile students have expressed concern over the incidents, the claims are being handled as they should be, Minger said.\n"Just like the description of the vehicle we have, one description is not really something we want to steer people toward until we have more information to substantiate a claim," he said. "If we release that the suspect looks a certain way and a student sees a suspicious person who looks differently odds are, they won't report it."\nSophomore Ashley Doepker said that her driver's side window was smashed in, and several things were taken from her car, also on Feb. 17.\n"My CD player faceplate was ripped out, and all of the wires were all over the place," Doepker said. "My portable CD player was taken out of the car as well as some of my CDs, and everything in my glove compartment was moved around."\nDoepker said she contacted the police about the possibility of installing a camera and was informed that Parking Operations would control that.\n"I later called up Parking Operations and was told that I would have to talk to the police since it was an issue of security," Doepker said. "It was one big circle, everyone was pointing fingers at each other."\nParking Operations did not return calls by press time. \n-- Contact staff writer Mallory Simon at mgsimon@indiana.edu.