OHIO COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM OHIO UNIVERSITYThe Athens NEWS: Twice weekly alternativeCommentary: Nothing like a painful burglary to teach a student lessons about security
2005-01-10
By Adam Townsend
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter


It's a kind of sinking feeling, getting ripped off. I know, because I unwittingly gave someone a snazzy lap-top computer as an early Christmas present in 2004.

In retrospect, it was really my own fault. The back door of my East State Street house was unlocked for my roommates coming home from the bar, and my computer was sitting in the living room on a tall pub table with a bright light hanging over it. All the blinds on the windows were open, too. My Dell was like a tasty pie in one of those glass display cases they have in diners, beckoning any would-be thief with enough guts to try the back door.

The morning I found my computer stolen, I was filled with impotent rage. I pissed and moaned and kicked stuff and made my girlfriend uncomfortable with all my hollering. I had stayed at her house the night before, and the only roommate home all night had stumbled in at 2 a.m. from the bar and immediately dropped into a 12-hour coma, rendering him useless as a witness to the crime. I know my roommate stumbled in at 2 a.m. because I had to drive back to take out the trash after he told me via cell phone, "I don't know if I can take out the trash, dude, I'm pretty wasted."

Our house had neglected to put the trash out for the previous two weeks, so I felt compelled to take care of it despite the late hour. When I briefly visited my house again, I arranged the recyclables, tied off the black bags and did not, alas, put away my computer, lock the back door or shut the blinds. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

What was worst about this treacherous act of thievery was not the loss of my $1,100 lap top, $40 case (which also contained $7 worth of stamps I just bought, the bastard), or the computer speakers the thief took with him. The case in which the thief packed away my lap top also contained every book, note and handout I received all quarter in every class I was taking. And the jerk didn't even have the common courtesy to dump them out on the porch. Perhaps he had an amateur interest in Spanish language theater and communications law. Perhaps he wanted to peruse a little Garcia Lorca after surfing the Net on his brand new computer.

At any rate, after kicking the pool table and hollering, I called the Athens Police Department to report the theft. The officer arrived to take the report, and I assured him that no, I was positive a friend was not playing a practical joke on me. Yes, I'm sure. I know you usually don't have this problem this far out on East State.

Was anyone home? "I think my roommate, but he was pretty drunk and probably passed out, locked up in his room," I explained.

Soon after this point in our conversation, the roommate in question appeared at the foot of the stairs squinting blearily. He eyed the officer suspiciously through squinted eyes, and subsequently decided that the cop was not there looking for him. I let roommate know what was going on so he could quit trying to remember whether he slashed some tires or killed anyone the night before.

He told the APD officer, of course, that he didn't hear anything because he was asleep. The office gave me his card and telephone number, so I could call and give him the serial number on the computer. I think he left still convinced some one playing a prank on me. Some prank.

"It's a good thing he didn't ask me what I was doing last night," my roommate said, still in his underwear and oozing liquor fumes at the bottom of the stairs. "I was pretty wasted."

At least we know that during the night in question -- Nov. 17, 2004 -- at no point was my roommate taking out the trash.

As I mentioned, the culmination of three months of study was in the stolen case. If you all remember, Nov. 17 was the Wednesday before exams week. Not only were all my notes stolen, but I had two final papers half finished and saved only on the hard drive of my stolen computer. My last week of fall quarter was a frenzy of library visiting, professor meeting, note Xeroxing, lap-top borrowing and paper rewriting -- thanks for understanding, professor Dashiell. By winter break, I was a sweating, shuddering wreck of a person. Luckily, I finished the quarter with decent grades and had a week off to sleep 12 hours a day.

AS A RESULT OF MY experience, I decided to find out more about theft at Ohio University. I looked at some links posted on the OU Police Department Web page. I know that federal law requires public universities to make campus crime statistics available to the public. Ironically, I learned this in my communications law class. In fact I'm fairly sure I remembered this fact because I had to write the paper about it twice -- the first one was stolen with my computer.

At any rate, OU's burglary rate is a lot lower than, say, Ohio State's, but burglary is still a significant risk in Athens. According to OUPD's Web site, 116 burglaries were reported in Athens in 2001, 132 in 2002 and 113 in 2003. Those statistics include theft on and off campus, and they also include a small number of attempted burglaries each year. The numbers for 2004 are still being tabulated.

"Obviously, we send an officer down," said Lt. Rich Russell of OUPD when asked about the department's procedure for investigating theft on campus. "We check for evidence of the crime, potential fingerprints or witnesses -- especially in the residence halls. People live there and are in and out all the time."

Russell said that if the victim of theft has his or her item's serial number, OUPD enters it into the National Crime Information Center database. That's the same system that contains the license-plate numbers of all vehicles reported stolen in the United States. Also, Russell said officers routinely check pawn shops as far away as Columbus.

I could offer one of those bulleted lists of measures to prevent theft of your property, but do we really need one? It's really just common sense -- a set of simple but useful rules that somehow left me that November evening. Don't leave your expensive stuff in front of windows, and, for the love of God, don't leave your doors unlocked. Even in a friendly little town like Athens, you have to assume that there's a slathering, amoral felon just itching to get his grubby paws on your stuff.