While he was sleeping peacefully in his Helser Hall dorm room, someone stole Heath Nelson’s speaker box and amplifier right out of his 1987 Nissan Pathfinder.

The thief or thieves even took his flashlight, costing Nelson $1,400 in total loss and damages. Nelson, senior in landscape architecture, parks his car in Lot 60, which is on Hayward Avenue across Lincoln Way from Friley Hall.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of thefts occurring in Lot 60. Three vehicles alone were reported broken into on the night of Jan. 19. Of the three, two of the vehicles’ driver side windows were broken, and stereo equipment was taken from each.

“Generally, someone will go in and hit several [cars] at a time,” said Loras Jaeger, director of the ISU department of public safety.

ISU parking lots have always been targets for theft, Jaeger said.

“They’re big parking lots,” Jaeger said. “There are a lot of cars in them with nice stereos and equipment.”

Raymond Harrington, junior in physics, reported the antennas on his vehicle were broken off the same night as the thefts in Lot 60 occurred. He said it is not the first time his vehicle has been vandalized this year.

At the beginning of the school year, Harrington reported the title of his vehicle had been stolen from inside his car. Both incidences occurred while Harrington’s vehicle was parked in Lot 60.

Jaeger said that because of the recent increase of thefts, DPS has begun having officers patrol Lot 60 more frequently.

“We monitor those things, and when we notice an increase, we certainly increase security,” Jaeger said.

Nelson said he would like to see DPS more actively patrolling the lot because it is such a hot spot right now.

“Everybody’s cars should be protected equally,” Nelson said. “There’s so many cars and so little DPS.”

The advice Jaeger said he would give students is not to have expensive items in their cars, but if they do, to buy detachable items, and if they notice anyone suspicious, to report them to DPS right away.

Nelson said he will not be replacing the speaker box or amplifier in his car because he cannot afford to have his stereo equipment stolen again.

“It would be like putting my foot back in the fire if I replace it,” Nelson said.

But despite having been burnt once, Nelson is still parking in Lot 60.

“There’s no other place I know of to park without getting tickets to keep it safe,” he said. “I would like to park it somewhere else.”