Did you know that if someone takes your stuff with the intention of bringing it back, it’s not considered theft in Idaho?

Corporal Billy Plank, an officer of the BYU-Idaho Division of the Rexburg Police Department, spoke at a December 2005 Theft Awareness Seminar as a culmination event of a project done by a group of BYU-I students taking Sociology 112.

“Theft is a crime of opportunity,” Plank said. “Even on this campus, not everyone is going to do the right thing every time.”

Plank explained that most thieves don’t wake up in the morning expecting to steal something, but it’s easy and the opportunity is presented to them, so they do. A large part of that problem stems from the victims of the crime.

“We have people who believe they aren’t responsible for their own things,” Plank said.

The officer told several stories of owners’ disregard for their own things, such as a student who left his laptop in a building for over 24 hours and then was shocked when it wasn’t there when he went to retrieve it.

He also talked about a gang member who stole things and thought that the things he stole were his. His rationalization?

“If they would’ve wanted it, they would have kept better track of it,” Plank said.

So how do you protect your things?

A list was made at the seminar, such as always locking doors, engraving your name on your property in two places, being careful about going to ATMs after dark, opening a bank account so you don’t have large amounts of cash, shredding your bank statements, limiting the number of people who borrow things from you, not keeping expensive things in your car, not giving a key to anyone and not propping doors open.

With identity theft becoming a problem, Plank addressed the issue and said identity thieves need three things to commit the crime: name, date of birth and Social Security number. Students should be careful with bank statements and credit and debit cards and write “Check ID” above the signature area of all credit and debit cards.

Plank also said the beginning of the semester is when students should start thinking about identifying property, because the police need two things to get your stolen items returned: brand name and serial number. He suggested making a list for all items of worth and tucking it away, just in case.

“Get rid of the mentality that because you’re in Rexburg, all is well,” Plank said.

Plank then wrapped up his seminar, leaving the small group there to discuss the seminar and also their project.

“The apathy of crime on campus is a plague,” said Casey Pixton, a junior from O’Fallon, Ill..

The group chose the subject of theft because one of the group members, Candice Gamble, a freshman from Tucson, Ariz., had recently been a victim of it.

“People don’t care until it happens to them,” said Brad Siegman, a junior from Waukesha, Wis..

The group said they weren’t surprised by the results from their theft survey.

“It was still shocking, even though I knew it would happen,” said Kirra Baird, a senior from Richland, Wash..