A Florida International University student was robbed on Monday night in the area near the Graham University Center and HLS I on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus.
The incident happened around 10:50 p.m. on Aug. 10. Two males grabbed the student’s laptop carrying case, which contained his laptop and keys, from his shoulder. The suspects, one of whom was on a bicycle and the other on a skateboard, fled. Police canvassed the area, but could not find the suspects.
No weapon was used and no one was injured, police said.
FIU Police Chief Bill King said that because of similar unrelated incidents in the area, it is important for the university community to take reasonable safety precautions.
“Our department is committed to providing a safe and secure environment,” King said. “This is a cooperative and collaborative effort involving all members of the university community. We urge everyone to take the necessary precautions to ensure their personal safety and encourage them to report any suspicious individuals or activity to FIU police.”
King offered the following tips:
Be vigilant and aware of your surroundings
Walk with a friend at night
Program emergency numbers into your cell phone and carry it with you
Protect your property: lock your vehicles, store valuables out of sight, and mark your property with unique personal identification information.
When you speak to police, be a good witness, with good descriptions of suspects and situations.
Sign up for Panther Alerts, FIU’s emergency text messaging system, by clicking here.
Use the Panther Safety Tram escort service, if needed. Call 305-348-6173. The service, which provides escorts around campus, is available during the fall and spring semesters from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., Monday to Friday, and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Friday, during the summer semester. After hours, call the FIU police department if you need an escort.
To contact FIU police, call 305-348-5911, or 7-2626, on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus and 305-919-5911, or 6-2626, on the Biscayne Bay Campus. In an emergency, dial 911. Police can also be called from the blue light emergency phones available in all parking areas.
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How about this tip:
You stop chasing us the students for having our parking decal expired or going over the metered by 1 minute, and put more police men and staff to chase the thieves instead….
This is not the first time I heard of someone getting robbed at UNIVERSITY PARK, the last time I heard about something like this was a couple of weeks ago, and to my surprise, it happened in the same place as described in this article… hurray for our police….
What Kind Of place is FIU…? Can you walk safe around campus? It was considering Admi. but with things like this happening so frecuent I guess I'll consider Miami Uni instead, more xpensive but at least is safe… police ask to be a good witness that doesn't make any sense… I guess they never heard of the word nervous or scared.
Why would they care about the safety of the students when they can just gash us for more money. When i started at FIU we were a good school with reasonable tuition and fees. Now as a senior who is forced to work full time to provide for myself. I'm paying a little over 500 for tuition for 2 classes and 700 for online and other fees. How ridiculous is that. I do blame the school and i refuse to let them push the blame to the state or any other body except themselves.
This article does not provide a sense that safety officials are doing anything. Instead of telling the community what they should do to prevent getting robbed, most would rather learn what new initiatives safety officials are implementing to increase our safety. I harbor no malice towards King—but, unfortunately, the "tips" offered by King are rather lame and borderline disrespectful. They come across as a half-hearted, canned response to appease higher-ups and the gullible.
First point: U of Miami is NOT a safe campus either…do I need to remind people that someone was murdered on the main UM campus and other very serious crimes against women as well. FIU is just like every other college campus…wide open to the world around it so of course things like this will happen. I agree the police need to change their strategy of campus safety but that also means that the students need to be more aware of their surroundings. Don't walk around in a daze talking on your cell phone at night or wearing an ipod so you cannot hear someone around you. Walk quickly and constantly look in all directions around you. If someone is on our campus trying to steal then the person that is unaware of their surroundings in the best target since you will not know what the person looks like because the surprised you.
This is not a one sided answer. It will take students, police and the administration to make sure that we have a safe campus. UM made major changes after the problems we had there so we can learn from them and other urban universities as to what has worked to improve safety. Blaming the police will get us nowhere. In college we are no longer children but adults and that means we are responsible for ourselves. It is true that we should expect a certain amount of protection from our police (they cannot be everywhere at every moment…unless you drag one around with you).
Would you rather police have guards stationed all across campus questioning anyone they deem "suspicious"? Most students at FIU are adults and should behave as such. Practicing common sense precautions to avoid getting robbed or knowing what to do in case you do should be practiced regardless of whether you're on campus or not. If you feel unsafe, you can always take the Panther Safety Tram or request FIU Police escort you during unsafe hours, as has been stated in this article.
If you ask me, everything stated seems fairly reasonable and not disrespectful in the slightest. FIU is a university, not a crime/drug hole. Do your part, and these incidences can be avoided and/or brought to justice.
I am a former student of FIU, and my laptop was stolen from my on-campus apartment while I was at work. This happened about three years ago. I got back from work, and there were police at my apartment. My roommate at the time claimed his computer was stolen too. But I think he probably stole it, and made up the whole break-in to cover his tracks. I hope everyone, especially the FIU police, will work together and do their part to increase safety on campus. God bless.