According to 100 student respondents, 87 per cent of students have left their belongings unattended on campus.
By: Vienna Tan
Students are growing more complacent when it comes to leaving their belongings unattended around campus nowadays.
In Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), valuables such as laptops and mobile phones are frequently seen left around by students to reserve seats especially at food courts or the library.
Alex Chan, a second-year aerospace engineering student at NP, says that he and his friends would leave their items on the table when they buy food. "We do not want to waste any time looking out for our items."
However, school grounds are not as secure as students assume.
Unfortunately, Chia Chee Tiam, a second-year Business and Accounting student of NP, returned to his seat after running an errand only to realise his laptop was missing.
The last place he could recall leaving his laptop was at a secluded area situated outside the classrooms on level six of Block 51 on campus.
"I felt quite unexpected as the school should be a safe place for students... I've never thought that this would happen to me," he said.
Unsure of which department he should inquire, the student tried two different campus offices to report the theft case and decided to bring forth his report to the police.
“The school did not get back to me. They only told me that they have reviewed the CCTV footage but could not find anything.”
Mr Eric Chin, an NP Electrical Engineering lecturer, supervised a group of final-year Electrical Engineering students who invented a laptop alarm system as a solution to laptop theft in 2014.
This system connects a device to a laptop and a portable alarm vibrator which triggers when the owner moves a distance away from the laptop.
Mr Chin believes that releasing the laptop alarm for purchase will make a good tech-safe package for students when buying their laptop. However, the device is still a prototype and is yet to make it on the market.
About the issue, Mr Chin says that the school does put up posters around school grounds that warn students to keep their valuables; laptops and hand phones away safely. “This means that (the school) must have some cases of theft. You can’t even actually find the culprit.”
Due to confidential purposes, the school was not allowed to disclose the statistics of theft cases over the years.
The real underlying issue is students letting their guard down when they are too comfortable on campus.
Mr Chin said, “Singapore is quite safe, but safe does not mean no crime.”
“I feel Singapore is quite safe, ... people around me can be trusted whenever they see things that are lying around,” said Alex.
After his experience, Chee Tiam says, “I have become more cautious of my surroundings by being more observant and wary of where I leave my belongings at. It also made me more paranoid.”
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