Many students who live in residence halls buy permits each year that allow them to park their cars in campus lots, but vandalism and theft are common, causing some to question the safety of these lots.

Alison Haase knows parking in a campus lot is risky. Last year her roommate’s car was shot with a BB gun, but she continued to park her car in a lot south of Cyclone Stadium.

One afternoon she received a phone call from the Department of Public Safety notifying her that her car had been vandalized.

“There was smashed-in glass everywhere in my car,” she said. The back window of the car was broken out.

DPS officials told her that it may have been done with a tire jack.

Nothing was taken from Haase’s vehicle.

“The doors were still locked,” she said. “I guess they did it because they wanted to vandalize.”

Last year, there were 270 cases of vandalism or destruction reported to DPS, up slightly from 1994. There were 77 vehicles reported stolen, up from 60 the year before.

Haase does not feel the lots are safe. In fact, she has removed her permit sticker from her windshield and has taken her car home.

“I will never park there again,” she said.

Eric Williams faced a similar situation last week.

He was notified by DPS that the passenger and driver side windows had been broken out of his car, which was also parked at the stadium lot.

Besides the broken windows, the vandals dented his car.

The doors were locked and nothing was taken, Williams said.

Williams said he will continue to park at the stadium, but he does not feel the lots are safe anymore. “There’s just too much room for them [DPS] officials to patrol all the time,” he said.

Loras Jaeger, director of DPS, said the department is “very concerned” with the problem, and officials are trying to balance parking lot patrols with the number of calls received for service.

“We can’t put someone in every lot,” Jaeger said.

The department works mostly on stationary surveillance, he said.

Lot 61 near Towers Residence Association and the lots south of Cyclone Stadium are the areas most vulnerable.

These lots are monitored the most because they are considered problem areas.

Vandalism and theft occur to cars that are both locked and unlocked, Jaeger said. If a thief finds a locked door, sometimes windows are broken out of vehicles.

Jaeger believes more lighting would be beneficial, especially in the lots around the stadium. The problem with additional lighting, aside from the obvious price tag, is creating light without illuminating the surrounding sky.

Jaeger recommends removing all valuables from vehicles or placing them in the trunk as a precaution. He also said recording serial numbers from equipment is a good idea, and can help in recovery if something is stolen.