Students at the University of St. Thomas received an email from public safety regarding several motor vehicle thefts on and around the St. Thomas campus on Nov. 12.
A press release from Kia that introduced a theft deterrent device for its vehicles was attached to the email. This came after a TikTok videol showing how to easily break in or steal Kia Optima and Kia Soul models went viral.
Junior Carter Friedges occasionally drives his family’s Kia around campus, which has Kia’s anti-theft device that locks the car’s steering wheel in place. He said that it makes him feel safer bringing his car to school.
“I’m glad something was created that makes it harder to break in or steal these cars. I am always hesitant bringing my family’s car to campus, but now that we got the ignition protector thing, I feel much better leaving and locking my car without having to worry about someone breaking in,” Friedges said.
While Friedges felt safer having an anti-theft device in his vehicle, students who bring their cars to campus should also be cautious of things getting stolen from inside their cars, said Aaron Fimon, the St. Thomas public safety manager for the St. Paul campus and clery compliance manager.
“Since January 1, 2024, we’ve had 16 thefts from inside motor vehicles in St. Paul,” Fimon said. “Eight of those are not exactly on campus. They’re within a six-block radius of campus, which we collect the crime stats for six blocks out because we want to give students the best statistical outlook possible.”
Fimon also mentioned that thefts of motor vehicles have gone down from years before, highlighting that there have only been seven thefts, with one of them being on campus, and the rest from those six surrounding blocks.
Although there has been a slight jump in theft involving cars on campus, St. Paul is on a declining trend while other cities are seeing more motor vehicle break-ins. The increase of theft began after the social media trend that showed the simplicity of breaking into a Kia, Fimon said.
“When that video was released in 2022, I think everyone saw a skyrocketing amount of theft,” Fimon said. “However, the good news with that though is St. Paul is going the opposite direction. They’ve actually been seeing less because they’ve been doing a lot of preventative education.”
Fimon said he wants to extend preventative education to students on the St. Paul campus, so they know how to be proactive and keep their cars and valuables safe.
“I think some of the basic things to prevent this from happening is don’t leave valuables in a car– not that there’s like bad guys lurking around every corner,” Fimon said. “That’s not what it’s like around here, but that does happen where people are just kind of watching, and they’re observing. So for starters, don’t leave valuables in the car.”
If a theft does happen to occur with a student’s vehicle, the first call that should be made is to public safety due to their familiarity with the campus and surrounding blocks, Fimon said.
“We encourage everyone to call public safety first, and then we can facilitate calling St. Paul PD, the reason is, UST has one address– 2115 Summit Avenue,” Fimon said. “If you call St. Paul PD, and you tell them I’m in lot B, they don’t know where that’s at. They are going to call us at public safety anyway and ask where that is.”
Students with cars at St. Thomas are encouraged to get parking passes, so they can park their cars in university lots. This will be a safer choice for vehicles and anything inside of them, Fimon said.
“We try really hard to make sure everything’s well-lit in our parking lots,” Fimon said. “We have cameras, but if people are parking out on, say, residential streets, it’s not guaranteed that the lighting is ideal or even good. Try to find somewhere with good lighting and make it as hard as possible for someone to do something they shouldn’t.”
Students who bring their car to campus should always leave it locked when they park, Fimon said.
He said he hopes that through the use of public safety and St. Paul PD’s car safety tips, students should be able to feel safe with their vehicles on or near campus.
“We just want students to have the tools to make good decisions for themselves,” Fimon said.
Livy Dunlap can be reached at dunl3109@stthomas.edu.