<p>My son recently had his (wet) hoodie sweatshirts stolen from the laundry room at college. The jeans weren’t taken, just the sweatshirts. The couple of people I’ve told say this is a fairly normal occurrence. I don’t think this will convince him to stay in the room while he’s doing laundry, and I took this opportunity to stress the importance of LOCKING his room, which they still may not be doing regularly. Is theft really that normal? I don’t know that it matters, but this is a private school that’s quite expensive.</p>
<p>College dorms are frequently targeted by thieves because many students grew up in very low crime areas and are not accustomed to basic security precautions against theft (like locking doors and windows).</p>
<p>But wet laundry seems to be an odd item to be stolen.</p>
<p>If the hoodies had the college name and/or insignia on them, anyone could take them, wear them, and never be noticed. And the cost of those can be $50 - $60 and higher, so it’s not surprising. </p>
<p>I know North Face fleece and jackets are another “popular” item to steal. </p>
<p>This is when our kids learn that the world is not always as nice as they thought it was.</p>
<p>It was not an uncommon occurrence back when I was in college. I’m not surprised it still happens.</p>
<p>Well I don’t know about stolen laundry, but I have a tip that might help him lock his dorm door. My good friend’s daughter is a freshman. One weekend night a drunk guy (who lives across the hall) walked into her dorm room (which wasn’t locked), walked across the room and barfed into her laundry (while she was sleeping until the barfing commenced). Needless to say she was doing laundry at 2am. Hope that helps convince him to lock his door!!</p>
<p>I have to say that the hoodies are a primary target, from what I’ve observed. They’re generally unisex, will fit many people (unlike jeans that are kind of specifically sized) and since anybody could buy the same sweatshirt at the college store, they’re easy to take and not get caught. (For instance, if somebody stole my Nirvana hoodie that I got from a garage sale several years ago, they’d have a hard time explaining how they came by the same article of clothing suddenly that hasn’t been sold in stores for years.)</p>
<p>The one with the smiley face?^
They found it at goodwill.
;)</p>
<p>I know of a case where a student who owned some nice big fluffy towels had them stolen from a college laundry room.</p>
<p>My DS had over $1,000 in name brand clothing stolen from the laundry near the end of his freshman year. Luckily, we had CSI insurance which reimbursed the retail price of the items stolen plus sales tax - less a $25 deductible.</p>
<p>My oldests freshman dorm room was right next to the laundry room. But still, she would forget about it. She was lucky, people would put her stuff in the dryer & even take her stuff outof the dryer and fold it!
Now she has to go to the next building and even though you need a key to get in the laundry room, she has had stuff gone missing.</p>
<p>I had a pair of jeans that I loved stolen from the laundry room (and don’t think many folks in my dorm would have fit & never saw anyone wear them in my dorm–very distinctive). Never could figure that one out but no other thefts of clothing in my 6 years away in college & law school. </p>
<p>Neither of my kids have mentioned any of their clothing being stolen, tho S did have his phone and wallet stolen when he left them on the gym bleachers at the end of freshman year. D had her phone stolen when she left it in an auditorium once after viewing a movie.</p>
<p>One annoyance I remember in college was that the dryers took twice as long to dry a load of clothes as it took the washers to wash the same load of clothes. They put the same number of washers and dryers in each laundry room, instead of doing the sensible thing and having 2/3 of the machines be dryers.</p>
<p>Someone actually stole my favorite pair of underwear from the dryer this past weekend. Lol</p>
<p>Back in the day when I was in college I had numerous very good items stolen right out of my closet – good wool dresses, jackets, etc. Very upsetting.</p>
<p>Somebody on my college athletic team had a sweatshirt disappear from our athletic facility and she actually saw somebody on the men’s team wearing it. That was hilarious because the sweatshirt actually specified that it was for a women’s team (from her high school). It was also a women’s small and (she was 5’1" and it fit her well) and the person who took it was over 6 feet. It looked ridiculous on him – the sleeves were at his elbows. I don’t think she said anything to him, though.</p>
<p>I thought my unique “designer” jeans were stolen from our sorority house laundry, until I found them months later, being worn by by a sorority sister, who didn’t live in the house. She had let me stay at her apartment for a few days during the holidays, and I guess she just took them out of my suitcase. By this point they had faded, so I demanded money on the spot (a campus classroom building). She wrote me a check. Later that day she called me, saying her aunt had given her the jeans, as she’d been unable to tell me where the jeans were purchased, when originally confronted. I don’t believe she ever showed her face at any sorority events after that. I was one of the few friends that she had.</p>
<p>Laundry room theft has been a longtime problem. One quick deterrent is to use a laundry marker to write the student’s name on the garment tag. This is especially helpful for those garments (like orientation week t-shirts) that are owned by many students.</p>
<p>Siliconmom… I did put his initials in multiple places on at least the college name sweatshirt, thinking if someone took it by accident it might make it’s way back to him. Some of his hoodies were fairly distinctive, but clearly it didn’t stop the thief.
When I was there for parents weekend he informed me they didn’t always lock their door bc they knew everyone on the floor. I mentioned that the problem was the peole not from the floor… But I only get about 30 seconds on a topic befor his mind shuts down, so I can’t say too much. Even if he sees someone with his shirt on, I don’t see him challenging the person for it… But I do think it will make him a little more careful with things he values more, such as his computers.</p>
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<p>Very true. This may have been an inexpensive lesson.</p>
<p>1214Mom, I’m sorry this happened. I remember feeling upset when my jeans were stolen from a dorm laundry room that they were probably taken by someone else who lived in the building…that made it worse.</p>