Actually, this hits close to home. If youre not already out, this is the time of season where most thefts by fellow students occur (towards the end of school). As of Tuesday morning, my Laptop was jacked while I was sleeping, a brand spanking new Compaq from last August. It had many of my editing work files, steam stuff, music, and yes, every single printed document from the past year. I was in the process of a 10 page research paper but now I have to start from scratch.
Just keep close tabs on your things! Know your serial numbers and MAC addresses!
I would use :em321: except Im not smiling

If you have a laptop in college, you seriously need to keep close tabs on it. You should have a security cable and chain it to your desk if possible when you are not using it. Also, its not a bad idea to purchase/borrow an engraver to etch a code word or phrase somewhere unnoticable on the case. Many police stations will do this for you if you call in advance to set up a time to get it done.

Getting something jacked from your room is not cool. Even worse that you were sleeping in your room.

One of the many reasons I wouldn't live on campus.

Care to name some others? Just curious.

:em321:

Loud people.
Annoying people.
People who live like pigs
Shared bathrooms
DIRTY shared bathrooms



Those are probably some.

Ok I know thefts occur, but from your OWN room? That's just bad. Sure, things left out in public get stolen all the time. But going into someones room.. Some people just suck. I never once locked my room at my campus. Never had any problems. People may steal, but have enough common sense to NOT go into roroms.
If you know stuff like that happens in your area, why wasn't your door locked?

I've had books stolen out of my room while I was sleeping. At the time, I didn't think to lock my door, since I was in my room and I lived on the Honors floor. Fat lot of good that did.

I'm out of the dorms now though, and I couldn't be happier about it.

What rob said - plus I'm not allowed to have a sound studio on campus. If I can take the bus and be there within an hour, there's just no point in living in a dorm.

Dude, that's nothing. A friend of mine's Suburban was stolen from his dorm's parking lot, which is monitored by surveilance cameras! During this past fall quarter, several students were robbed at gun point outside of my dorm. One student was robbed at gunpoint in the dorm, in his own room. They knocked on his door, he opened it, and they forced their way in.

Jesus tap dancing christ.

Why must people suck so much?

I lock my doors. I never let my computer out of my site. I've I'm taking it with me, its on my shoulder, or secured in the trunk of my car.

My laptop is located in a shelf set in the wall, locked in its docking station. You have to maneuver around a large, noisy garbage bag, a computer chair that barely fits, then disconnect the laptop's docking station.

But, then, it's only a P2 333. Not exactly a "high value" item.

Well, from what I am hearing, a lot of people don't bother to lock their doors. If this is the case, then you are asking for trouble. Security starts with simple measures.

F-Body, where was your laptop when you were sleeping (before theft of course)?

My laptop has a GPS tracker on it. I'd like to see an idiot steal the laptop

(And you know how they say they can just take the gps sticker off? Well I popped my laptop open, its INSIDE the laptop :D)

And if they steal your car or jimmy the boot open?

"GPS sticker"?

Umm, wouldn't it make sense to LOCK YOUR DOOR?

It's literally a sticker you put on the laptop, that can be used by a tracking company to get the location of your laptop, via GPS. It's really slick, and a nice reassurance.

There hasn't been a theft in my dorm since January, when people stole books. My laptop was underneath me, I have my bed elevated above two things to form my study, and its black leather case was 3 feet away. The case included my 256MB flashdrive, windows cds, and computer documents
You bet I'm going to be super tight on security come a new compy

The guards at my school have guns.

I don't know why.

half the time the key cards dont work on the doors and people can just walk into just about any building / some of the guys only dorms dont even have key card entry, witch sucks for them.

book steeling is what goes on mostly at my collage, nothing more serious than that, but i still lock my doors.

Last summer our dorm door WOULD NOT lock. At all. The people at the front desk told us they'd send a matenence guy down... in a week. I said F that and I told them I was replacing the door handle myself and I'll send them my bill. They told me I'd be kicked out of the summer-program there if I did. So I did and the director of the college came to the room and shook my hand after he heard WHY I did it. He then reprimanded the woman who had NO authority to tell me I'd be dropped from the summer program for doing it. That's right, Brandon wins.

Considering my roomy had a 3000 dollar lappy, a guitar, amp, footpettle, and a mobile fridge, and I had a PS2, a borrowed X-box, a borrowed GCN, a big screen TV, a 20,000 dollar wheelchair, and a drawing eazle and tools that cost about 600 all together, I was somewhat concerned. We had a package of CDs stolen already and everyone was getting things swiped.

Eventually, I was the person who uncovered the theif when I heard a song comming from their room that I KNEW they didn't have (Authority Zero) and sure enough, they had all of my CDs, and a bunch of other people's stuff.

It's amazing who's a dick now adays.

JediKirby

Do all colleges/universities have shared (room-mates) on-campus housing?

There are obscure rareties where they made a closet into a dorm room that sometimes get pawned off for cheap singles, but they're often overly small and really not worth the price anyway.

Don't you go to a religious school?

When they lock our buildings, you can just hit the handicap button and the doors will open. So remember, only criminals in wheelchairs can actually get in the building

Our university has the option of buying a normal room as a single, but of course at a much higher price than you would pay otherwise.

Not always. My school has honest-to-goodness singles, some of which are big enough that they'd be doubles at other schools. I personally am living in a big triple next year, which should be fun.

As for security, it's thankfully not something I've had to worry about in my dorm. I almost never lock my door, and have yet to have anything stolen. It's just a different kind of atmosphere from most dorms in that I don't think anyone here would even comtemplate stealing someone else's stuff. I haven't heard a single report of theft from anyone in my dorm this year.

Now, this isn't to say that I'm careless with my stuff. I use a cable lock for my lappy (pretty much the only thing of value I keep in my room), same as anyone else. It's just nice to know that if for some reason I forget to lock it, it'll still be there when I come back.

Stealing isn't that big a problem over here. In the begining of the year a kid down the hall had some stuff stolen when he left the door a crack open by accident.

I personally love the dorm experience, but my dorm this year only has 60 something kids in it total so everyone knows each other. The big dorms don't have that. Either way you're living within feet of dozens, maybe hundreds of kids your age depending on the dorm size.

Of course you'll have to deal with crap you shouldn't (college kids aren't any smarter and certainly no more mature than the rest of the world. Maturity seems to be lacking a lot), drunks, jerk-offs, assorted stuff, but it's really cool.

Then my car insurence buys me a new computer. Everyone wins.

yes my college is quite small, and on one floor there about 20 some people. The main door to the hall is locked by card keys, and those actually work, so I haven't been too worried about stuff getting stolen. Apparently it hasn't happened in a couple years, and besides, who wants a Mac anyways?

I'm going to Boston University in August with a 17" powerbook.... any advice on how to keep it secure? The gps option sounds really sweet, how much did that run you?

All students in our dorm are issued a key card with an RFID transmitter in it, you have to wave it in front of the main door to get in, but as we actually have seven dorms connected by one building and they don’t make you swipe out when you leave, yeah, its pretty useless. There is a security guard at the front desk all the time, and a few cameras around, but nothing that would actually deter theft.

The Key cards also double as debit cards for the vending machines and washing machines in the dorm, but about two months ago someone stole the machine that puts money on the key cards. Seriously, its on a 3 foot by 4 foot machine mounted on a wall in a very public area, and someone just came by, ripped it off the wall, and walked away with it. They searched everyone’s rooms after that, and are still offering a $500 reward for the return of the cash machine.

But I keep my room locked almost all of the time, and my roommate is really good about locking up as well. Plus I keep most of my valuable stuff in a large tool box (site box actually) that locks.

My school has singles in the dorms. They are the same size as the doubles and triples anda re reserved for upper-classmen who still feel the need to live in the dorms.

Hmm... I just ask because I'm trying to figure out if it would (in general) be cheaper to rent a single on campus, or just look for an apartment nearby.

er... yeah, sorry. Off-topic.

I guess that would depend on where you're going to school. Rent is pretty high in the Bay Area, but living in the dorms is like $5000-$6000 a semester at Cal.

Could you elaborate on the GPS stickers? All the ones I've seen for cars have been semi-large and expensive.

My freshmen year, I had a guitar stolen out of my room.
I had always locked the door but right after I had gone to class, my roomate went to the bathroom for only a min or two and when he got back the guitar was gone, he had assumed that I, having only left 3 or 4 mins before, had come back to get it for some unknown reason.

It wasn't worth very much but It was a rare guitar and remains to be the finest that I have ever played.
I miss it.

Theft is not common at all on my campus (WKU), when I went around asking if anyone had was seen carying the guitar (since I didn't have a case for it and it was just bigger than almost all common cases so it wouldn't fit) many people were supprised that there was any theft at all.
since then security on campus has been improved alot mostly due to a muder which happend a couple of years ago.

We leave our Dorm Door and room door open almost all the time. We also leave our Backpacks unattended in the lunch area. I've left my laptop in the lounge multiple times.

It's nice to go to Whitworth College.