T-Sgt. Nate Leonard, UPD Columnist
The month of October has been especially busy for UPD as far as larceny complaints. In October alone we have taken around ten larceny complaints from the Alumni Field House and Chase Physical Education. The majority of these complaints have several victims. One or multiple individuals have been going into locker rooms in these buildings and taking various items from unsecured lockers. Stolen items have included cash, cell phones, clothing, headphones, wallets etc. Both male and female locker rooms have reported to have items stolen, so please be extra cautious in all locker rooms. At this point, as usual, it is highly recommended that you do not leave any items of value in any locker unless it is properly secured. Even if you believe the locker to be secured, you can still be victimized. As recently as Thursday, we had a complaint of items being stolen from a locked locker. The suspect cut the metal cage front of the locker to gain access to the item. The bottom line is to err on the side of caution and absolutely do not leave any valuables in any of the lockers, and if you must, please make sure it is secured with some type of lock. Some of the locker rooms in these buildings are locked at the entrance to the locker room, however, do not assume that your locker is therefore secure. It is very easy for someone to gain access to these locker rooms and then have open access to all of the unsecured lockers inside that room. Several of our cases involve that exact scenario.
The University Police Department has devoted numerous “man-hours” reviewing video footage of several cameras, following up on leads and interviewing numerous people. At this time these cases are still open for investigation and UPD encourages anyone with any information regarding these cases to contact us. If you do not feel comfortable contacting UPD by phone or in person you have the option to use our Silent Witness Program. If you access the college webpage, www.oneonta.edu, you can type in “silent witness” in the search bar at the top of the main page and this will take you to the Silent Witness section. Doing this will allow you to remain anonymous if you so choose, but will still allow you to possibly provide information which may help these victims regain their stolen items. If you see anyone around these locker rooms that is suspicious to you please contact UPD immediately. If you have any information regarding these thefts at all, please contact us, no matter how insignificant you may think that information is. Thank you in advance!
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