After driving junkers all his life, Kory Menke, 224 S. Kellogg Ave., finally got a new car last August, a 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier. Menke, senior in transportation and logistics, even took care to park his car in secluded locations to keep it from being hit or damaged.

“The reason I parked away from people was because I have a new car, and I didn’t want to get it dinged,” Menke said.

But then on Sunday, when Menke stepped into his car, he realized the Chevrolet emblem on the hood of his Cavalier had been stolen.

Menke was one of two people who reported missing car emblems Sunday, a problem that Loras Jaegar, director of the Department of Public Safety, said pops up from time to time.

“Generally, it tends to be younger people in high school or middle school who take them,” he said.

The teen-agers often make the emblems into necklaces, Jaegar said, and they tend to target more expensive automobiles. The other hood emblem stolen was from a Volkswagen, and Jaeger said officers believe the incidents are related.

The thief who stole Menke’s emblem apparently used a screwdriver to pop it off the Chevy’s hood, causing damage to the car, which had been parked in Lot 56 near Maple Hall.

Jaegar said the thefts of the hood emblems are an excellent example of an “opportunity crime,” one in which the thief can take advantage of circumstances such as poor lighting or lack of police patrolling to steal. He said the best way for an individual to avoid such crimes would be to make sure the area where one parks is under a street light.

Menke estimated it would cost $200 to fix the damage done to his vehicle, including repainting the hood, pounding out the dent and, of course, replacing the emblem.