Car Vandalism Plagues Peabody Garage

More than a dozen cars were vandalized in the Harvard-owned Peabody Garage near Mather House early Tuesday morning, the second such incident this year.

"I received an e-mail from the parking garage saying that my car had been tampered with," said Natalie A. Lester '01. "I immediately ran outside to see what had happened."

The Mather resident found her driver's side window smashed, her dashboard wrecked and her car stereo stolen, along with another sound system she had in the car.

When Lester met with police officers later that afternoon, they told her that she was the thirteenth person they had seen that day.

"At this time we have not been able to contact all of the vehicle owners and so we can not give an exact number [of incidents] yet," said Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) spokesperson Peggy A. McNamara.

McNamara said an HUPD officer on routine patrol of the garage found the cars early Tuesday morning.

"We presume that stereo equipment was the target item," McNamara said.

But some cars were broken into and had nothing stolen.

Tuesday's break-ins are not the first incidents of car vandalism at the Peabody Garage, which is used by many students.

Eugene K. Cha '01 was one of several who had their cars broken into on Jan. 25.

"They had some kind of tool and they pried open the lock on the passenger side door," said Cha, who is also a resident of Mather.

The garage is key card restricted and a security guard patrols the garage during the evening, but no one is on duty between midnight and 4 a.m.--the hours when the break-ins are believed to have occurred.

Lester expressed concern about the safety of the cars parked in the garage, saying that anyone could follow a car through the gates, even without a key card. She said parking office should have sent out warnings after the January break-ins.

William W. Cai '01 said he was so concerned about the security of his car in the garage that he decided to go to the parking office yesterday to ask if his car might be safer at the Soldiers Field lot.

"They said the break-ins were an isolated incident," said Cai, who is also a Crimson executive. "They did not seem to take the incident very seriously. I mean, there have been multiple cars broken into here."