An unlocked bike or a laptop left unattended. Sometimes one gets robbed easily. But what do you do when that happens?
The university areas don’t stand out in the statistics what concerns the amount of thefts. But having in mind the high amount of bike thefts, above all in Lund, it can be good to keep track of one’s bike.
Håkan Klein, assistant police chief in Lund, says that only few of the many stolen bicycle cases get solved.
“Of course, it sometimes happens that we manage to catch a car with a trailer that is emptying the bike racks and when we manage to catch such thieves, the statistics are good,” Håkan Klein says.
“But it’s not every week we succeed in that, so to say. I think that there are quite a few bikes that get stolen only because some drunk person needs a bike to make his way home.”
Home insurance important
All study places at Lunds University are exposed to risk of theft. Per Gustafson, chief security officer at the university says that computers and mobile phones with a good second-hand value are the most popular items to steal from university buildings. Most often, the theft takes places when someone leaves his belongings unattended for a short while.
“It happens often when they buy a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom and leave their stuff behind. For that reason, we have put up many of those “Pay attention”-signs all around the library and at other study places,” Per Gustafson says.
“It has shown that this increases awareness somewhat, but it’s hard to measure the real effects.”
The easiest way to lower the risk of being robbed yourself is easy: don’t leave your belongings unattended. If you have to leave them behind, then ask an acquaintance to keep an eye on them.
If an incident would happen anyway, then it is, above all, the police one should turn to. A police report is also needed in order to get something back from the insurance, which Per Gustafson thinks is a factor that can contribute to the amount of hidden statistics among Lund’s thefts.
“Many maybe have don’t have a home insurance and then they won’t get anything back anyway. For that reason many people maybe refrain from reporting the thefts at all,” Per Gustafson says.
When Lundagård in 2012 composed a questionnaire to which over 2000 students replied, it turned out that over 16 percent did not have a home insurance.
“Some don’t care”
But the lack of a home insurance does not need to be the only reason for not filing a police report. Some people simply accept that they have been robbed.
“Some don’t care about having lost stuff. That is a pity, because it is important to file a report as soon as one has been robbed of something in any case,” Per Gustafson says.
The reason is that the university can put in extra resources if the amount of reported thefts increase. If an increase of theft is noticed at for example Eden or the Faculty of Physics during a certain period, the university can invest in more surveillance at the place.
Text: Agnes Östberg
Translation: Paula Dubbink
