Trinity’s campus has seen a rise in crime over the past week. On Monday, Feb. 16 the Trinity University Police Department released a community crime alert on recent thefts in the residence halls. Studentss clothes were reportedly taken from the dryers in the laundry room.

According to the alert, three different thefts were reported during the weekend of Feb. 15. One report was in Verna McLean Hall and the other two took place in Lightner. Sophomore Kevin Flores had clothing taken from the laundry room.

“I went down to the laundry room and looked in the dryer and my clothes just weren’t there. They were gone,” Flores said.

Both Flores and a friend were doing laundry at the same time when they had their clothes taken from the laundry room once they had left them unattended. While thefts have occured at Trinity, the timing and number of the incidents was, according to TUPD, uncommon.

“I was doing laundry with my friend Blake at the same time and his stuff was in the two dryers next to mine, and I looked in there and the clothes were gone,” Flores said. “I went to his room and asked him and he said his clothes were stolen, too.”

The two contacted Trinity Police shortly after they discovered their clothes missing to report the theft.

“When I got to Blake’s room, he had already called TUPD and they were on their way so I stayed there. We talked to them about the whole situation,” Flores said.

So far none of the missing clothes have shown up for any of the reported thefts. Assistant chief of police Pete Perez Jr., explained different ways students can be aware of the situation and how to prevent future thefts.

“Just be wary of your items, make sure you monitor them. I’ve seen it myself where students come into their residence halls, they open the door to come in but there are some people behind them that they just let in and they are trying to be cordial, which is fine, but that bad guy could slip right in,” Perez said.

Perez also added that smaller thefts such as laundry can frequently be crimes of opportunity rather than planned events.

“A lot of times it just comes down to crimes of opportunity; the key is to not give them that opportunity,” Perez said.

With multiple theories about the thefts, Perez additionally noted Trinity’s open campus and the easily accessible buildings could have been a contributing factor to the recent crimes.

“Don’t let suspicious people in behind you when you’re walking in. Because if you open the door and let anybody in you don’t know, then that defeats the purpose,” Perez said.

While the crime rate at Trinity is fairly low there are still occurrences that happen occasionally. TUPD encourages students to call in if they see any strange behavior on campus and to make sure they always report suspicious behavior.

“Y’all are the eye’s and ears, we can’t be everywhere and when you see something suspicious by all means call us. We’ll be happy to check it out,” Perez sid.