Last fall, when UCF sophomore Luis Ramos first moved into his apartment in Phase Two of the Pegasus Connection student housing complex off Alafaya Trail he never got the feeling he was unsafe.
He had heard of incidents in the past but as far as Ramos was concerned the area didn’t seem prone to crime.
“From my experience everything was pretty calm,” he said.
Ramos' outlook turned drastically in the following months.
Around Halloween a friend visiting from the University of Florida who stepped outside to make a phone call was beaten and robbed outside of Ramos' apartment.
After Thanksgiving vacation Ramos’ neighbors returned to find that the front window of their apartment was broken and their T.V. and other valuables were missing.
About a month later Ramos’ apartment door was kicked down and his roommates’ game systems as well as a guitar were stolen.
Ramos’ room, at the very back of the apartment was untouched, but the incident was the final straw.
After talking with Orange County Sheriff’s Department officers and Pegasus Connection officials he felt that the blame was being placed on him, he said.
“They said it was weird that the incidents centered around on person, that I must be hanging out with the wrong people,” Ramos said.
He and his roommates rarely had parties or people over at their place, he said.
Still Ramos fell subject to a string of larceny, theft and robbery cases that drove him out of his apartment at the beginning of this year.
Ramos’ experiences aren’t singular, either.
According to 2006 UCF Police Department crime statistics, the most recent available, the number of robbery, burglary and motor vehicle theft cases reported on the UCF main campus and at affiliated housing complexes, Pegasus Landing and Pegasus Pointe, soared to 149 incidents that year, up 34 percent from 2005.
Already this year 24 larceny and thefts have been reported in an approximate 2 mile radius around UCF.
Cases of theft and burglary are common crimes in most university areas, said Cpl. James Roop, Community Relations Supervisor for the UCFPD.
“People let their guard down because they think the campus is safe and secure, and it is, to an extent,” Roop said.
Most of the thefts that drive crime rates up on campus are because students leave valuable items for brief periods of time in places like the Student Union and the library.
“They say they’ll be back in a minute, well someone can steal something in a minute,” he said.
In cases such as Ramos’ students’ apartments are often burglarized when students leave their apartments, and the valuables inside them, for an extended period of time, such as over Christmas break, Roop said.
In most UCF burglary cases non-students take advantage of the student populous surrounding the university, he said.
When students return to their apartments after breaks, car burglaries then go up, he said.
Noticing these trends, the UCFPD conducts surveys of on-campus and affiliated housing areas, hoping to improve lighting and other environmental factors that will keep students safe.
UCF affiliated housing communities are in the process of building gates around the property because of the analysis conducted, Roop said. The gates will also be maintained by security guards.
Ramos’ old neighborhood, Pegasus Connection is not under the jurisdiction of the UCFPD and therefore does not go under their surveying.
Ramos thinks it should.
Ramos, his mother and relatives of his roommates called on Pegasus Connection offices to improve safety standards for the area but saw very little response to their complaints, he said.
“They said the best they could do was move me to Phase One for a $350 fee,” said Ramos, who always noticed that Phase One was much better lit and that the complex’s single security guard tended to patrol that area more often.
Ramos decided to take the hit in paying two leases and move to an Oviedo apartment where he feels is safer.
Even though Ramos still has friends living in the community he rarely stops by, especially not after nightfall, he said.
“I feel bad, but I don’t like that place anymore.”
