Olivia Westrich, a senior at the University of Maryland, College Park, often hangs out at the Starbucks in the College Park Shopping Center on Route 1 — so when she visited the establishment on the night of November 19, she expected it to be business as usual. The last thing she anticipated was becoming one of the latest victims of property crime in College Park.

The neurobiology and physiology senior arrived at the Starbucks at around 7:30 p.m. It was a Saturday night, but she was nonetheless determined to study for an upcoming exam.

Accompanying her was her friend, Alli Buller. Buller, a senior studying computer science and psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, had some coding to do.

However, the pair never even got the chance to order coffee. According to Westrich, a little after 8 p.m., two men moved briskly through the Starbucks and swiped four laptops — including hers and Buller’s.

“My computer was in front of me one second, and it was gone the next,” Westrich said. “It happened so fast … I was literally typing on my computer when it was taken from me. You know, same with Alli — we were using our computers and they just got taken right from underneath us.”

As Westrich recalls, she and Buller froze in disbelief as the perpetrators fled the scene. One of the other two victims chased after the men, but could only get their license plate number as they sped away.

While the Starbucks heist was particularly egregious, property crime — defined by the FBI in its Uniform Crime Reporting program as entailing “burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson,” specifically without the use or threat of violence against someone’s person — is not at all unheard of in and around the University of Maryland, College Park.

The University of Maryland Police Department handled 203 property crime reports within its jurisdiction — which stretches well beyond the boundaries of the campus — between Jan. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2018, according to data it aggregated for the FBI’s UCR program.

In 2018, there were no reports of arson, defined by the FBI for the UCR program as “[a]ny willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.”

There were, however, 11 reports of burglary, which the FBI defines for the UCR program as “[t]he unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.” This includes forcible entry, attempted forcible entry and even the entry of an unsecured private room (e.g., an unlocked dorm room) without permission.

The UMPD also accounted for 22 reports of motor vehicle theft. The FBI defines this crime for the UCR program as “[t]he theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle,” not the theft or attempted theft from a motor vehicle.

Theft or attempted theft from a motor vehicle would constitute larceny-theft, defined by the FBI for the UCR program as any attempt — successful or unsuccessful — to carry out “[t]he unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.” By far, larceny-theft is the UCR offense most commonly reported to UMPD, with 170 cases in 2018.

While 203 may seem like a large number of property crime reports without any context, University of Maryland, College Park, reported an enrollment of 43,691 in 2018. This is to say that for every 1,000 students, there were 4.65 property crimes reported to UMPD.

Compare this to the national rate of property crimes reports in 2018, which stood at 21.99 reports per 1,000 U.S. residents.

Rates of property crime reports among Maryland colleges and universities that participate in the UCR program tend to be much lower than the national rate. With one outlier — 30.92 property crime reports per 1,000 students at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in St. Mary’s City, Maryland — 2018 rates of property crime reports per 1,000 students ranged between 0 at Hagerstown Community College in Hagerstown, Maryland, and 11.91 at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The median rate of property crime reports across participating Maryland colleges and universities in 2018 was 5.14 per 1,000 students — a rate which the numbers at University of Maryland, College Park, fall below.

Rates of property crime at the University of Maryland, College Park, are not only relatively low, but also in decline. Despite the fact that enrollment at University of Maryland, College Park, was lower a decade ago than it is now, with a reported 37,000 students in 2009, there were 491 property crime reports that year, making for a rate of 13.27 property crime reports per 1,000 students. Thus, in 10 years, the annual total of property crime reports at the University of Maryland, College Park, has decreased by 58.66%.

Broken down by crime, motor vehicle theft report rates have been unpredictable, and there have not been enough cases of arson to make a solid statistical conclusion, but the trends for burglary and larceny-theft are clearly moving downwards.

UMPD spokesperson Sgt. Rosanne Hoaas attributed this decline to a variety of factors.

“I can’t say, ‘Yes, it’s all good police work’ — I really can’t,” Hoaas said. “We are a huge campus, and we rely a lot on our campus community. So oftentimes, a lot of educational outreach — we do all the orientation presentations, and so we’re making sure we’ve talked to the new students right away … reminding them of safety, crime prevention tips and everything like that, but also working with our partners across campus like resident life, reminding the residents to close the door, lock your door, secure your property, don’t leave valuables unattended...”

Also, some items — such as textbooks — no longer create as much of a theft problem as they did several years back, according to Hoaas.

“Textbooks were everywhere, and they were really easy to make a profit on, because you could go to the nearby ‘fill in the blank’ store down the street and get instant money back,” Hoaas said. “And people would just leave their textbooks out and about.”

Hoaas argued that these days, people should be certain to be mindful of their electronics.

“We’re still dealing with people leaving property unattended, like laptops, cellphones…” Hoaas said. “Anything with an Apple logo on it? Consider it probably gone if you leave it out and about.”

Bikes, Hoaas said, also make up a significant category of stolen property at the University of Maryland, College Park.

“Don’t bring an expensive bike to our campus and secure it with a cable or chain lock,” Hoaas said. “Why? Because that’s very easy to defeat.”

Hoaas suggested that students instead use a U-lock.

“I’m not saying a U-lock is a guarantee, but it makes it more of a struggle if someone’s looking for an opportunity to take something.”

Hoaas also has advice for avoiding motor vehicle thefts — which, according to Hoaas, often involve scooters or golf carts.

“Scooters are really hard, because all you need is two people to pick it up and put it in the car, and it’s gone,” Hoaas said. “A disk-brake U-lock … makes it more of a challenge if someone’s trying to push it away.”

These tips may help protect students from preventable thefts. However, as seen in the case of the recent Starbucks laptop heist — a crime which remains under investigation — even the most cautious people can fall victim to property crime.

“Honestly, I would take fault if there was fault to take,” Westrich said. “But, like… there was almost nothing I could do.”

Banner photo by Medium.