In the month of January alone, there were 35 reported thefts on Ryerson’s campus. About one in four of those were Apple products – including iPods, iPads and MacBooks.
“Generally speaking, whatever the hot ticket item at the moment is is going to be the item that is targeted the most,” said Daniel Paquette, account director for Ryerson Security. “It really comes down to the popularity of the product and what people can actually get a return on, on the street.”
According to Ryerson Security, most thefts on campus occur when valuables are left unattended by the owner.
The Ryersonian wanted to investigate whether students witnessing thefts in the Library Building and the Hub Cafeteria would stop a thief. We sent in two of our reporters to find out. One acted as the student walking away from his laptop, while the other acted as the thief.
For the most part, the “thefts” went uninterrupted – two out of seven attempts to steal the laptop were successful. Only when someone nearby was asked to watch over the laptop was there some intervention, however, not all students asked to watch over the laptop did.
How safe is your stuff?
With files from Chris Babic, Hillary MacDonald & Matt Kennedy
Jason graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 2014.