UCC student Cody Phillips’s car was stolen from the UCC campus Friday, April 26.
Phillips left his blue Honda in the UCC parking lot, west of the Whipple center, just before 11 a.m. After he and fellow student Zach Schissler put their backpacks with laptops inside. He returned shortly at around noon to discover his 1994 Civic Hatchback and his valuables inside were nowhere to be found.
After searching the surrounding parking lot, Phillips contacted the police and UCC security to report the missing car.
UCC security was unable to find any evidence from campus security surveillance tapes of how the car was stolen.
The following day, Douglas County sheriffs contacted Phillips to inform him that they had found his car and caught the alleged thieves.
The car had been painted black with rattle cans, and the license plate was gone as well as the battery and sound system. The back seats had also been ripped out and the interior was destroyed including the seats and the door panels. All personal identification or car details, like stickers, were removed and all valuable auto parts were stolen. In addition, his personal effects in the car including Phillips’s backpack and school related materials were also missing.
Phillips states that the car was locked, and the windows were rolled up when he left the car that morning. How the car was broken into is still unknown. Phillips states the windows were not broken and it didn’t appear that the locks were tampered with.
Phillips had bought the car between the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 as a senior project. He had rebuilt and customized the car himself.
If you see suspicious activity at the UCC campus, the security office asks you to please contact UCC security at 541-440-7777. Security director Brian Sanders also asks that students keep their vehicles locked with valuables stored out of sight.