Skylar Savarin

This past month, there were four incidents of stolen clothes in Calvert and C.W. Miller residence halls. The clothes were taken from laundry rooms before students could grab their items. The thief is still unknown, and many students fear their laundry may be next.
Among the recent victims is Elida Del Angel, sophomore global Latinx studies and management double-major and Calvert Hall resident, who had her clothes stolen on Jan. 28. She had set a timer for her clothes, and later, when she went to pick them up from the dryer, they were gone.
“I had never expected it to happen to me. I’ve heard about other people, but I just assumed, you know, it’s never gonna happen to me, but here I am now,” Del Angel said.
Paloma Villasenor, first-year neuroscience major and C.W. Miller Hall resident, had her clothes stolen in mid-January. She began her laundry before going out for the night, but after putting the clothes in the dryer, she forgot to pick them up by the end of the night. By the time she returned the next morning, all her clothes were gone. All that was left was a pair of socks.
“That was a week’s worth of clothes. You know, it’s just really frustrating because I never leave it in there that long, and the one time that I did, something happened,” Villasenor said.
Clothes are a source of expression and sentimental value. Villasenor mentioned that a lot of their stolen clothes were recently gifted or thrifted and are difficult to find elsewhere.
“I was really angry because a lot of [the] clothes [were] birthday gifts or Christmas gifts,” Villasenor said. [The clothing] was worth a lot of money, and it’s also sentimental, or at least I really like my clothes.”
Del Angel’s entire load of laundry was stolen, including Trinity tour guide polos and a bid day shirt. Del Angel described the experience as violating, and the thought of someone out there with her clothes is unsettling.
“You feel uncomfortable because someone out there just took my clothes, everything included,” Del Angel said. “I filed a report with TUPD, and they’re doing whatever they can, but they don’t have any updates yet, so now I don’t know what to do.”
Students, Del Angel included, often misplace or leave personal belongings like computers and backpacks unattended in Trinity’s buildings under the assumption that no one would steal their items. However, with Del Angel’s recent loss, she now questions the security of her belongings and the integrity of her peers on campus.
“I always told my parents, ‘no one at Trinity steals.’ All the time people are returning Apple pencils, chargers, air pods and stuff,” Del Angel said. “And I figured yeah, everything’s fine, everything’s safe. No.”
Joslyn Boyer, sophomore biology major and Calvert resident, experienced a different case of laundry room theft. On Jan. 27, Boyer went to pick up her load of laundry from the dryer and realized that the laundry bag she had left with her clothes was stolen. After the fact, Boyer contacted TUPD, and a notification email was sent to Calvert and Miller residents that Monday to warn them.
“After I reported it, I had multiple people from the university reach out to me. It’s nice that the school is trying to support students, even though there wasn’t really anything they could do to help me with this situation,” Boyer wrote in an email.
Students living in Calvert or Miller may have noticed flyers warning students about laundry thefts and reminding students to set timers. Nikolaas Strom, the Residential Life Coordinator for Calvert Hall, has looked into each of the thefts and is working with TUPD to keep students’ belongings safe.
“I was saddened and concerned to hear that this happened in our residence hall and wanted to make sure the residents impacted were supported,” Strom wrote in an email. “When students are doing laundry, we encourage them to stay with their items, bring their homework with them or use it as a chance to take a study break.”
With the recent laundry thievery, there seems to be a sense of unease among students doing their laundry. Passing by the Calvert laundry room at night, you’ll see students sitting on the floor waiting for their loads to finish.
Both the Miller and Calvert laundry rooms are accessible to anyone, regardless of their student status. While the thief could be a student, it could also be an off-campus threat.
“I just feel like they should have been stopped by now, just because I know some people also got their clothes stolen last semester,” Del Angel said. “What’s Res Life, TUPD gonna do about this? Our laundry room is fully open; you don’t need your card to access it.”
“I wish they had security cameras because it’s not the first time this has happened,” Villasenor said. “I just wish the school would do a little something about it.”