Ten larcenies reported on campus Friday
The Mount Pleasant Police Department and Central Michigan University Police Department have seen a wave of vehicle larcenies in the area over the past several weeks.
On Friday alone, the CMU Police Department received reports of 10 individual vehicle larcenies, most of which occurred in lots 63 and 64.
In some cases, windows were smashed during the larcenies, and vehicle radios were taken out, said CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley. Others were the result of doors being left unlocked.
It appears likely the same person or group of people may have committed the crimes, but the situation is still being investigated, Yeagley said.
“Historically, that’s how these types of things occur,” he said.
Yeagley said he does not view the larcenies as a major issue for the department, because most of them happened within the same 24-hour time period and the problem has not been especially common in the past.
While the larcenies are most often the result of unlocked doors, many of the cases being investigated are unique, he said.
“There have been broken windows and other damage to some of the vehicles,” he said. “This group apparently has shown they are willing to do that.”
The police should be contacted if a person is seen looking through a vehicle suspiciously, or if an individual offers to sell an item, such as a car radio, for cheap, he said.
The Mount Pleasant Police Department recently arrested a suspect who admitted to a string of larcenies throughout the city in late October. However, multiple larcenies have been reported even after the arrest.
“It goes in streaks,” said MPPD Det. Sgt. Bill Bluemer. “Probably 90 percent of them were a matter of doors being left unlocked, along with a few cases of windows being smashed.”
The Isabella County Sheriff’s Department has seen far less cases throughout the county. Over the past month, there have been no vehicle larcenies reported and only three reports of malicious destruction of property involving a vehicle, said Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski.
“We haven’t seen many larcenies lately, so we’re just knocking on wood,” he said.
