Amid police concern of burglary on campus, two parking permits were stolen from unsecured vehicles at 2:20 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Wednesday in the R-3 parking lot and Flint Avenue Parking Garage, according to the Texas Tech Police Department.
Heather Medley, marketing and training coordinator of University Parking Services, said her department takes parking permit theft as a serious offense.
University Parking Services is in the testing stages of a new parking control system, Medley said. The system would use license plate recognition to control parking on campus.
“There would be no need for parking permits,” she said.
Parking services employees would be able to quickly scan lots for unauthorized vehicles, Medley said.
Stolen vehicles and vehicles belonging to wanted persons, she said, could be identified by the system and police could be alerted hastily.
Although there is no certainty as to when the license plate recognition system will be implemented, she said, there is a possibility the system will be in use on campus in the near future.
“Parking permits are government property, so we take this very seriously,” she said. “People in the field are constantly updated.”
Medley said in the event of a theft, there is a strong likelihood of the permit being recovered.
“Our folks are very good at what they do,” she said. “They enjoy being the one to find (a stolen permit).”
A victim of a permit theft must sign an affidavit to receive a replacement permit, Medley said.
Bryan Quinteros, events supervisor for University Parking Services, said the employees occasionally encounter counterfeit parking permits.
“We see some pretty good ones,” he said.
Some fabricated permits go into remarkable detail, Quinteros said.
Col. Gordon Hoffman, deputy chief of the department, said the stolen parking permits are worth $216 and $390. The vehicles from which the permits were stolen were unsecured and otherwise unharmed.
It is possible that the two incidents were related in some way, Hoffman said, but there is no way to be certain of such an assumption.
Theft of permits, he said, is an uncommon incident. The department treats the cases as theft cases and responds accordingly.
“I don’t think stealing a parking permit is worth it, but you never know what a thief thinks,” he said.
In the event that a stolen parking permit is found by University Parking Services, Hoffman said, police are notified and the situation is handled as necessary.
Be the first to comment on this article!