An international student had his car vandalized on Tuesday while it was parked on the east side of Gardner Hall.
Robert Flight, a sophomore history major from Guildford, United Kingdom, said he was frustrated due to the lack of information on the progress of the investigation.
“Honestly, I have been kept in the corner on everything,” Flight said.
According to John McCall, the chief of campus police, they may not have contacted the student in the past week as they do not have any suspects.
“The student reported the incident to us and the investigation is ongoing,” McCall said.
According to Flight, he found out about the incident when he was going to a work dinner and a friend pointed out that the front passenger door of his car had the word “Gay” spray painted on it.
Flight said he had to wait to report it since the dinner was important for his career plans, but went to the campus police when he got back.
“Once I got back, me and my friend Diego went straight to the police, and we ended up sitting in the police building for two hours giving out identification details, and they took a few texts off my phone from people they believe may be linked to this,” Flight said.
According to Flight, the police told him they would contact him the following morning, but he didn’t hear from them all day.
After enlisting the help of the international office, Flight said that he was contacted by the police the next day but couldn’t respond as he was in class.
According to Flight, his repeated attempts to contact the police after that were met with no response.
“It’s gone completely cold,” he said.
McCall said that the campus police welcome any tips from students with knowledge on what might have happened and that the investigation was not closed yet.
Based on certain texts he received, Flight said the incident might have been driven by jealousy of his relationship with a female student.
“I have received texts where people (who could not be named for legal reasons) have used this homophobic slur because of my nationality,” Flight said. “I’m not gay; I don’t know why else it would apply to me.”
“I honestly think that it was because I was international based on the background of my beliefs on why this was done.”
Flight said it would be easier to keep students’ cars safe if cameras were installed in the parking lots.
“From what I was told, they don’t believe that there are any cameras in that location,” Flight said. “That is absolutely ridiculous that the terra cotta warrior displays around the lake have cameras on each of them, and yet apparently student cars on campus parking next to three large residential buildings aren’t worth anything.”
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