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The Rice Thresher
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by Matt Cuddihy for the Thresher A wave of maintenance cart thefts has swept campus over the past couple of weeks, with at least seven separate incidents reported to the University Police. Three Wiess College freshmen were referred to University Court after another student reported that people were repeatedly driving three carts into walls at Wiess about two weeks ago, University Police Chief Bill Taylor said. "They were basically having a demolition derby with two fiberglass carts and one metal cart," Taylor said. "I heard a rumor that someone at O-Week told freshmen that this was the thing to do, which is unfortunate." Within 24 hours of this occurrence, three more incidents were reported. The first involved a stolen cart later recovered in the West Stadium Lot near the intersection of Greenbriar and Rice. Another cart was stolen and has yet to be recovered. In addition to these thefts a cart parked outside of Alice Pratt Brown Hall was hot-wired. The authorized user was inside the building. Since the first four incidents, three more vehicles belonging to Rice have been stolen, including a maintenance tractor used by the Kinesiology Department. The tractor disappeared last week and was last seen on the east side of campus being driven by a young male, possibly of elementary school age. The tractor has not been recovered. The other two stolen vehicles were carts. One was seen in the Texas Medical Center area; when the driver realized he had been spotted, he ran away and abandoned the cart. The other cart was seen at a nearby golf course being driven by two juveniles in their school uniforms, apparently of elementary or middle school age as well. This case was referred to the Houston Police Department. Rice recovered both carts. Excluding the tractor, there are two types of vehicles being stolen - some are similar to golf carts, and others resemble miniature versions of flatbed trucks. Both kinds belong to Facilities & Engineering. One reason the carts are so easily stolen is the low quality of their ignitions, Taylor said. "We're looking at changing the ignition systems on some of these carts so people can't do this as easily," Taylor said. "But we don't want to encourage people to consider this a challenge - we don't want people to try to figure them out." Taylor said most carts have their keys in them much of the time and could be taken by anyone. Taylor also said that while the incident at Wiess did involve Rice students, all subsequent thefts have most likely been committed by a single external group, probably young adolescents. Reasons for the cart thefts are unknown, but Taylor said that in the early 1990s, new members of a nearby gang stole Jeep Cherokees as part of their initiation. It is possible that something similar is occurring at Rice, he said. No new incidents have been reported since Sept. 22.
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