A string of vandalism that occurred last weekend in several Iowa State parking lots has left many students feeling upset and insecure about parking their cars in campus lots.

Capt. Rob Bowers, Department of Public Safety patrol coordinator, said the recent incidents of vandalism resulted in a total loss of about $9,000 in both damage and theft.

He said even though this is not a normal occurrence, having something like this happen occasionally is not unusual.

“It is not uncommon for this to happen a couple of weekends per semester,” Bowers said.

Despite the high numbers of vandalism cases reported this weekend, Bowers said people should feel safe parking their cars in the ISU parking lots.

“You look at anywhere there are large parking lots and things like this occasionally happen,” Bowers said. “It is important to remember that things like this happen to vehicles — not to people.”

Many of the students do not feel as confident about parking lot safety as Bowers does.

Matt Klein, freshman in construction engineering, said his car has been broken into twice already this semester in Lot 61 outside Towers residence halls. The most recent occurrence was Sunday, when his car window was broken out and his compact disc player stolen, he said.

Seven other cars also were vandalized outside Towers on Sunday.

Klein said he no longer feels safe having his car here.

“It is not so much the value but a nuisance,” he said. “I am almost at the point where I don’t want my car here anymore.”

Klein said he was disappointed about the safety provided by DPS. He said the people committing the vandalism had enough time to break the window and cleanly remove his CD player.

Bowers said DPS patrols all of campus and the vandals simply lucked out and didn’t get caught last weekend.

“It really is a matter of being in the right place at the right time to see that happen,” Bowers said. “The worst thing you want is a regimented routine.”

He said officers are trained to randomly patrol areas so people cannot detect a pattern. Sometimes an officer will circle a parking lot, go around the block and immediately repatrol that lot, while other times it may be 45 minutes or an hour before another officer drives through the area.

General patrolling is not the only factor that affects how often a DPS officer visits certain areas, Bowers said.

“It’s based on their number of calls for service they’ve gotten that night,” he said.

However, some students still feel DPS isn’t doing its job up to their standards.

“I would like to have more of a presence of DPS in the parking lots,” Klein said.

Nathan Bryant, senior in biology, feels the same way.

“It is ridiculous, in my opinion, how DPS says they will keep an eye on student property but does nothing to increase the security,” he said.

Bryant reported damage to his car Sunday morning in Lot 60 near Friley Hall. He found a broken passenger side window, broken locks, a destroyed radio and a ripped up dash board. Damages to Bryant’s car totaled about $2,200.

Vandalism also was reported in the S-Parking Lots outside the stadium. Eric Dewey, freshman in art and design, reported about $980 of damage done to his car. The damages include broken windows and a stolen stereo, he said.

Dewey said he does not feel safe parking his car there anymore.

“There is no security, no lights, no patrol men and no one out there,” he said.

Bowers said despite last weekend’s troubles, the parking lots generally are safe and officers are assigned to patrol the areas and to catch offenders.

Bowers said students could also help to prevent such vandalism from occurring.

“There are emergency phones in each of the parking lots,” he said. “If anyone sees anything unusual and if they can call right away, we can get an officer there.”