Beware of dryer rage.

The Tommy Hilfiger outfit you bought for more than $100 or those nickel and dime Goodwill jeans could disappear before the buzzer goes off and the dryer door swings open.

Sound strange? It might not, if you do your laundry in the residence halls.

Last weekend, Nicholas Senske, 5576 Friley Hall, reported to the Department of Public Safety that his laundry had been stolen from the Friley Hall laundry room.

The officer estimated his loss at about $125.

“It’s like dryer rage; people get tired of it being in there and remove it and put it on the floor,” said Senske, junior in architecture. “I was out and couldn’t get back for five hours, and someone had taken it.”

Senske said his “mega-load” wash, which consisted of bedding, towels, socks and five of his favorite shirts and sweaters, was returned two days later.

“They switched the laundry,” he said. “The person found out it wasn’t his laundry two days later, so everyone got their laundry.”

Randy Alexander, director of the Department of Residence, said laundry theft is not that common.

“In the 20-plus years I have been working with residence halls, [I found] it happens occasionally,” said Alexander about laundry theft. “Sometimes it seems like a series — you don’t have any, then a few. I’ve never been at a place where it was a big problem.”

Alexander said there were some instances of laundry theft in the Towers Residence Halls at the end of last year, but he hasn’t heard of any thefts this year.

“If you look at how many loads [of laundry are done] a day in the laundry room — odds are pretty good that your stuff will be there when you get back,” he said.

Loras Jaeger, director of DPS, said the laundry tends to disappear when a student puts it in the machine and then leaves the laundry room.

“On occasion we have laundry taken that is women’s undergarments, and you wonder where they’re going to go,” he said. “Very seldom do we recover it, but it’s possible it could be recovered.”

Jaeger said students should report the theft of laundry, no matter how minor it may appear.

He also advised that laundry should be attended to when it is being washed.

“Theft many times is an opportunity crime; it is property that is unattended, easily accessible, and people steal it,” he said. “It’s nothing different than leaving your residence hall room unlocked — because the opportunity is there, someone steals your property. To be safe, take the opportunity away.”

Alexander agreed with Jaeger’s advice.

“The only thing you can do to be certain is stay in the laundry room until your laundry is done,” he said. “For most students, they feel comfortable leaving their laundry while they do other things.”