Photo by John David Clark, Photography Editor
As of last Thursday night, eight cars belonging to male students residing in Bowdle/O’Bannon Hall have been keyed in the dorm parking lot.
Large scratches and vulgar images mar student vehicles, and a suspect has not yet been identified or caught.
Earlier in the week, students began to take notice that cars were being keyed in the dorm parking lot. What started as two cars turned into four. Now, eight cars have been reported as vandalized so far.
Freshman business finance major and O’Bannon resident Max Colegrove was the first victim.
“At first, I thought it might have been some of the immature middle school kids down the road or maybe some person from Cleveland,” Colegrove said. “But then there started to be patterns of keying cars during chapel, and it all immediately stopped as soon as our RAs started taking shifts watching the parking lot.”
Colegrove said his car is also the most expensive example thus far, with an estimated cost of repainting the vehicle ranging from $3,000-$4,000.
Like Colegrove’s, most of the keyed cars were black—something Colegrove said he attributes to the darker background making the markings more visible.
One strange detail regarding this incident is its heavy resemblance to the first season of the popular Netflix mockumentary series “American Vandal.” The show centers around the aftermath of an incident where cars are vandalized with the very same obscene imagery seen with the keyed cars in Bowdle/O’Bannon’s parking lot. Colegrove said he found the correlation puzzling.
“Our hall had just watched the entire first season [of ‘American Vandal’] 24 hours before my car got keyed, which was really weird,” Colegrove said. “Now I really, really do not think anyone on my hall would do that. A lot of people have seen American Vandal, but the timing was interesting.”
Dean of Students Alan McClung said he was disappointed with the series of incidents and made it clear that disciplinary actions would be put in place.
“The discipline would be most severe if that was found to be a student,” McClung said. “[Vandalism] is zero tolerance on this campus.”
The guilty person would then be interviewed while the university held an investigation to determine whether suspension or expulsion would be dealt, according to McClung.
Along with academic disciplinary action, Colegrove said he hopes legal action would be taken against the vandal.
“[Those responsible] would need to pay for it,” Colegrove said. “They did the damage; it is their responsibility to bring the cars back to [what] they were before they did the damage,” Colegrove said.
Colegrove said he also wishes the university would consider placing security cameras in the dorm parking lots in the result of the recent vandalizations.
“We would love to start [a] petition to get some sort of camera system on Bowdle O’Bannon so that if I were to go home and fix my car and bring it back, there [would be something in place] to stop somebody from keying it again,” Colegrove said.
At this time, the vandal has not been apprehended, but an investigation is taking place in cooperation with the Cleveland Police Department, according to Assistant Director to Campus Security Tyler Allen.
“Because it is ongoing, we aren’t at liberty to disclose details on the progress of the investigation,” Allen said. “However, if anyone wishes to come forward with related information, we ask that you contact Campus Security.”
If you would also like to contact the authorities with additional information about this series of events, the Cleveland Police Department can be contacted at (423) 476-1121 or in person at 100 Church Street NE.
