University senior Colin Culbreth locks his car’s doors religiously and never leaves anything of value on its seats.
Nevertheless, on Sept. 26 Culbreth was ready to leave for a day of volunteering in Junction City when his roommate asked why Culbreth’s car wasn’t visible outside.
Culbreth paced around the corner of Ferry Street, thinking maybe he had forgotten where he parked his 1988 Honda Accord. Maybe it got towed, Culbreth hoped.
Police informed him that it hadn’t, so he reported it stolen.
“You know how you get your first car and you get exactly what you want?” Culbreth asked. “That was this car for me.”
Police told Culbreth his Accord was extremely easy to break into. Thieves had used a shaved key to open the locked door and turn the ignition.
In fact, the West University neighborhood where Culbreth lives has the highest level of property crime of all areas near the University, according to Eugene police.
Seven car break-ins and one vehicle theft were reported last week alone in the area, which extends west from Kincaid Street to Willamette Street and north from East 19th Avenue to Franklin Boulevard, police said.
From Jan 1. to Aug. 31, 82 cars were reported stolen in the area compared to 27 in the South University area and 12 on campus, police spokeswoman Kerry Delf said.
The good news is that students might get their cars back.
Eugene police recover 80 percent of stolen vehicles – a rate 30-percent higher than the national average, Eugene Police Department Detective Scott Thomas said. He said this directly reflects the prevalence of methamphetamine, or meth, in the area.
“(Stolen cars) are being used locally and dumped locally,” he said.
Police found Culbreth’s car Sunday, almost two weeks after he reported it stolen.
“Police seemed optimistic that I would get it back,” said Culbreth, an educational studies major.
Culbreth found out the morning after his car was stolen that two girls who had lived next door during the summer had their cars stolen last month.
University juniors Kellee Cowman and Elisha Curtner woke up the morning of Sept. 15 and saw their house’s front door ajar. A friend had left the door unlocked, and the girls had left both sets of their car keys among other possessions in the living room before going to sleep.
Curtner, a general science major, had bought her charcoal-gray 2004 Volkswagen Jetta just 10 days before she reported it stolen.
Although she had thought about theft in Eugene before, she no longer feels “West Eugene or even my home is a safe or protected place,” she said.
Police found Curtner’s car a few days later.
“I half expect my car to be gone again every day when I wake up,” she said.
Police officials also found Cowman’s 1999 Toyota 4-Runner a few weeks after the burglary.
“All I could really think about is how bad I wanted to know who it was and what kind of person would ever do that,” Cowman said.
Thomas pinpointed methamphetamine users as the culprits.
“Once they go on a meth high, their whole motivation is to get more meth, so they go out and steal what they can,” said Thomas, who works in the EPD’s property crimes unit.
Eugene still has four times more car break-ins than car thefts, Delf said.
During the same period, South University had 120 reported vehicle break-ins, campus had 22 and West University had 233.
Thomas said in the West University area, students tend to keep a lot of stuff in their cars “that is just bait for these thieves.”
Honda and Toyota, the two car models that are neck-in-neck as the most stolen cars in Eugene, are abundant in student neighborhoods, and appeal to thieves because shaved keys can be used to access them, Thomas said.
“That’s what the tweakers do,” Thomas said, “They go to Valley River Center or Chase Village, and they know they can get four cars.”
“On average, they steal four to five a day,” he said.
Thomas said thieves break into the cars that have checkbooks, purses, navigation systems and fancy stereos visible when thieves peer through the windows. Cars that don’t contain valuables should be left untouched.
“You can only do your best to protect yourself,” Curtner advises to fellow students, “Lock your doors and windows and be aware.”
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