New South Campus Garage already tainted after break-ins

South Campus received a new addition this semester: a much-needed parking garage. Nursing students, Pierre Laclede Honors College students, residents living in on-campus housing and faculty were all experiencing a shortage of parking.

Construction on the South Campus garage began in January 2006. Almost three years later, members of the University of Missouri-St. Louis community are finally able to ease their frustration … somewhat.

The new South Campus garage opened around the same time fall semester started. The original date of completion was scheduled for the fall of 2007.

However, three 20,000-gallon oil tanks were found under a corner of the garage site last year. This delayed the date of completion even further.

Finally, this past August, the garage opened. There were no reported crimes until Sept. 18. On that day, twelve automobiles were reported to have been broken into.

"This past Thursday we had a lot of [break-ins]. We had several cars that were broken into. We discovered them on Saturday," reported Lieutenant John Schupp of the UM-St. Louis Police Department.

"The break-ins on Thursday and Saturday were very similar. The thieves somehow managed to develop a way to defeat the door lock through the door handle," Schupp said. "To say they were all similar would be correct."

The new parking garage has the capacity to hold 250 automobiles. Of the 12 cars that were broken into, two or three had laptops that were stolen, reported Schupp. Other items that were stolen included change, a wallet and even navigational devices.

The South Campus parking garage was not the only place where break-ins were reported.

"When we discovered what was happening [at UM-St. Louis], there were lots of other police departments around UMSL reporting similar crimes. All the departments around us and municipalities that surround the university had similar problems, not the same magnitude maybe," Schupp said.

The various police departments are working together in order to catch the person(s) responsible.

The UM-St. Louis community can expect a new surveillance system as well as a barrier that will be placed around the lower level of the garage.

"We have a plan in place to build a fence around the lower level of the garage to restrict access from the back side of the garage. We're going to have cameras installed, too," Schupp reported.

While it may take more time in order for the victims to fully recover from the break-ins, all is not lost.

The UM-St. Louis Police Department has yet to identify the suspect(s). That may soon change.

"We don't know for sure if the suspect is a juvenile. We have fingertips and other evidence from cars broken into," Schupp said.

Schupp said that any person seen walking between vehicles or crouching down between vehicles is engaging in suspicious behavior and could possibly be a thief.

If any suspicious behavior is seen, he said, call the police immediately at (314) 516-5155.

"We have been proactive in this since last Saturday, and we have been conducting investigations daily, and we are taking every step to try and catch who is responsible for this" Schupp said.