If you’re missing your cell phone, student ID card or textbook, you might want to visit the University Campus Police Office on West Grace Street.
Rebecca Shaw, the police crime prevention specialist for the Monroe Park Campus, said missing items indicate how busy VCU students and others are.
“We have schedules we have to meet around campus,” she said. “This is a commuter school so people get busy. They try to carry more than they can carry, and it’s hard to keep your eyes on everything.”
With students typically in a hurry, they sometimes may not realize they have misplaced their belongings until a few hours or even days later.
VCU Police Property Office
938 W. Grace St.
828-7071
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday
Operation Identification Information
James Spruill, the deck supervisor for the Department of Parking and Transportation, said people tend to place books on top of cars or fumble with their keys and not even realize they are gone until later.
“Generally, it’ll be security and students who find the lost belongings,” Spruill said.
Shaw recommends that students who find a lost belonging take it to the campus police’s property office as soon as possible. The University Student Commons and Monroe Park Campus deans’ offices also collect lost items.
For example, if a male engineering student lost his cell phone while in the School of Engineering Building, a good place for him to look for it would be in the dean’s office in the engineering building.
“We also give the VCU police any course of information we have, like what vehicle it was found near,” said Miriam Maddux, the ombudsman for parking and transportation.
Once the finder gives the property to the police, someone there, such as a police officer, tries to find the owner. If no one claims the property within 90 days, the state auctions it and the proceeds go to the state. In some cases, owners go to the police looking to recover their belongings.
“There’s a great system through Operation Identification,” Shaw said. “You can mark your property with a unique number identifiable to you, and that number is your driver’s license number or your Department of Motor Vehicle Citizen ID card.”
Recovered property having a driver’s license number on it can be identified within seconds by any officer in any state and returned accordingly.
Shaw recommends that property owners write their driver’s license number on any belongings of value such as textbooks, cell phones, bikes and book bags. This not only helps increase the chances of recovering lost property, Shaw said, but it also helps deter others from collecting another person’s belongings.
“The Student Commons have lockers for rent, and that could be really nice because you can carry your stuff there and not carry everything you own,” the police officer said. “You will have a base on campus where you can take the books you need and not have to carry everything.”