The Department of Public Safety is continuing to investigate several unsolved crimes, ranging from assault to burglary, that have occurred in the last year and a half.

Hopes are high, but in some cases the chances of finding the perpetrator are minimal, said Loras Jaeger, director of DPS.

In October, a woman, whose name has not been released, was assaulted in what may have been an attempted kidnapping near the Lied Recreation Center.

The woman said she was attacked by a man who jumped out of a car and attempted to pull her inside the car. The woman said she resisted the assault, and the man jumped back into the car and fled the scene.

Jaeger said this case may never be solved.

“You don’t get really good descriptions from the victims because they are getting beat up,” he said.

Another case of an unsolved assault occurred Sept. 9 near Carrie Chapman Catt Hall. D’Artagnan O’Connor-De Los Rios, sophomore in agricultural business, reported that he was assaulted by two men outside of Catt Hall and had several of his belongings stolen.

O’Connor-De Los Rios said he understands cases don’t always get solved, but he doesn’t feel it’s DPS’s fault.

“As of what they were doing afterwards, I don’t know,” he said. “During the whole thing, they did a good job.”

Other victims do not feel the same way. Todd Jacobs, junior in computer engineering, said he was beaten to unconsciousness in October 1999 in Lot 60 with the butt of an assault rifle. Jacobs said a lone man assaulted him while the man’s friend stood by on “look out.”

“They grabbed me and put the gun to my skull,” Jacobs said. “I was pleading for my life.”

Jacobs said the assailant wanted to kill him, but his friend yelled at him, “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

The assailant then continued to beat Jacobs with his rifle until Jacobs reached unconsciousness, he said.

“I woke up halfway in my car with blood all over the place,” he said. “I started freaking out and wondering what happened.”

Jacobs said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after the incident.

“I was scared to do anything,” he said. “I would stay in my room. I wouldn’t even eat supper because I was so scared it would happen again.”

To make matters worse, Jacobs said he did not feel DPS was doing its job. He said officers were not timely when it came to returning his phone calls, and they seemed not to care about the case.

“They were sloppy. They did a horrible job as far as I am concerned,” he said.

With all of this, Jacobs said he is now very concerned about his own well-being.

“I really think the DPS is doing a horrible job with protecting the students right now,” he said. “I don’t feel like I can trust them; I don’t feel safe.”

Jaeger said the department does its best and takes every assault case serious. He said there is hope in some of these cases, even though identifying a person by description from the victim often is not enough.

“It just depends — people brag about things they did, or someone knows and doesn’t tell anyone,” he said. “Then something happens, and they come forward.”

Although vague descriptions usually don’t help, Jaeger said it is possible to catch a person if the victim can remember special things about the person. However, Jaeger said that’s difficult to do.

“The most important and difficult part is to keep your wits about you so you can look for certain characteristics,” Jaeger said.

One of the other crimes that often goes unsolved is computer theft, Jaeger said.

“We keep track of all the stolen property so other departments often find stuff stolen from ISU,” Jaeger said. “We always have hope that the stuff turns up. Occasionally it does.”

Jaeger said DPS recently found some equipment stolen from Drake University. He said it is not uncommon to find other stolen equipment when executing a search warrant.