Chris Whitehead, a management major at CSUN, had his motorcycle stolen from the B5 parking structure on Nov. 1.

This was the second reported motorcycle theft this semester, according to CSUN police daily crime logs.

Whitehead said he felt comfortable parking his motorcycle at CSUN, but after the theft he learned there is no surveillance watching over the areas he used to park his bike.

“I’ve had fears in the past, but not at CSUN,” he said. “I thought that we were a pretty close community.”

When asked about precautionary measures and other deterrents, campus police told Whitehead that there are no cameras installed at the motorcycle stalls.

“That’s a lot of real estate for CSUN not to be able to have visual aid in case something actually happens,” Whitehead said.

The campus should do something to prevent further motorcycles from being stolen, he added.

“I would also like to see an ability to lock your motorcycle to something,” Whitehead said.

LAPD Detective Keith Hunter, of the Devonshire Division, said it is possible for motorcycles to be chained to an object, but even chains cannot totally prevent theft.

“Just like you chain up your bicycle,” he said. “All you’re trying to do is make it more of a deterrent. If someone really wants that bike and they have the tools for it, they’re going to cut the lock.”

Close-by, Pierce College takes a different approach when it comes to motorcycle security.

Their motorcycle stalls are located in front of the sheriff’s office, said Julia Giron, a police cadet at Pierce.

Giron added that those are the only stalls on campus and have no reported motorcycle thefts this semester.

Because some motorcycles can be easily carried by two people, this is common way for thieves to make off with the bikes, Hunter said.

“We have that periodically, where they’ll just load up the car, look to load a motorcycle into a van or into a truck, and off they go,” he said.

Whitehead contacted CSUN police as soon as he discovered his vehicle had been stolen.

He said that campus police told him that they would file a stolen vehicle report and place his motorcycle on a nationwide stolen vehicle database, which is seen by other police agencies.

To be safe, Whitehead contacted LAPD to ensure that his vehicle identification number was registered in their stolen vehicle database, as well.

Motorcycle thefts are not a problem around CSUN, Hunter said.

“It’s no more of a problem around (CSUN) than it is anywhere else,” he said.