COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio State University Police Department is warning students and staff about a rash of car thefts happening on and around campus.
As of July 24, more than 2,000 Kia's or Hyundai's were reported stolen across the city since the beginning of the year, according to Columbus Police.
The 10TV Crimetracker10 crime map shows 323 car thefts overall have been reported in the past 30 days, up from 205 reports during the same time frame in 2021.
"If I were a victim, I'd say it's pretty bad. You know it costs money to replace these items. We work hard for money," said Lt. Marjorie Rizalvo with campus police. "Employ some strategies so that you're safe, perhaps using an anti-lock tool such as a club, parking and lit areas, not leaving your keys in the vehicle or key fobs in the vehicle, keeping packages, bags, laptops, that kind of thing away from view and calling the police when you see something suspicious."
"I have a friend that had her backpack in the back seat of her car, and somebody smashed the window, grabbed the bag, and just ran off, and it was like right before finals too, so they stole all her stuff. So, she had to like work from scratch after that," said Ohio State student Tess Hollern.
The graphic below shows the trend of stolen Kia's and Hyundai's reported in Columbus in 2021 and 2022 compared to the number of cars stolen overall.