Public Safety reports no leads on keying incidents
Managing Editor
Reported incidents of vandalism in the parking lot have lead to dead ends according to Public Safety.
The first reported incident of keying this semester occurred on Sep. 21. The student reported that, between 7:45 p.m. and noon, someone scraped the left front quarter panel and hood area with a key. “In that case, we weren’t able to prove that did not happen here and there was damage so we sustained it as an actual incident,” said Fred Aliberti, director of Public Safety.
Three days later, another student made a complaint that someone keyed his car. The case was determined to have not occurred on campus that day after officer Steven Denio reviewed the D Lot footage.
The most recent reported case, which occurred last Monday, was also ruled inconclusive. According to Public Safety, a student reported key marks on his driver-side door and driver-side rear door between 11:40 a.m. and 1:50 p.m.. According to the footage, between the time the student left his car to the time the student returned to his car, no one was around his car to damage it besides his friend, who checked the vehicle at 12:56 p.m.
“Sometimes people get crazy. They see that others are reporting it and they think that [keying] happened here and it didn’t happen anywhere else,” said Aliberti.
Carr Allen, individual studies student, said many incidents of keying have largely been unreported. “There are a lot of people who have put a lot of money, time and effort to their vehicles that are now finding them damaged,” said Allen.
She said last Wednesday around 1 p.m., while coming back from the Science Center, she noticed scratches on her car that she suspected were not from door slamming or tree branches. Due to the age of her car, Allen did not file a report to Public Safety but did post what she believed was keying on her car to HVCC Confessions.
“I don’t get how nobody has been caught yet,” said Shannon Hughes, architecture student, who believes there many of the keying incidents have not been reported. Hughes believes that many students would rather post the incident on social media rather than report it to Public Safety.
Keying incidents started being reported on HVCC Confessions on Sep. 21, the day before the first incident was officially reported. “I guess it’s not as set in stone. You can’t really tell,” said Luke Dupuis, mechanical engineering student about incidents such as keying reported on HVCC Confessions.