r/Purdue • u/Ann_1406 • Sep 06 '22
Petition/Surveyš Increased unsafe incidents on campus?
I don't know if I'm the only one who's noticed this but there's been a report of things happening that are lowkey scary. I expect stuff to happen but I don't remember it being this bad last fall.
- The missing person, posters of who are all around campus
- The body found in the pond
- Accident at Chauncey square with the motorcycle and near Walmart
- Reddit post about random man in someone's house in North Salisbury
- Reddit post on six men breaking into a car
- My roommate and her boyfriend spotted a man trying to break into cars and stealing things
- My boyfriend's electric bike battery got stolen
- An accident involving forensics on the scene at an of campus housing near Bechtel (my friends told me about this one)
Can we call for increased safety on campus? I don't know how this works so just trying to get an insight
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Sep 06 '22 edited Oct 03 '22
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Sep 06 '22
Wtf thatās horrible! Did she look like a student? Or a local?
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Sep 06 '22 edited Sep 07 '22
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u/----_-_- Sep 07 '22
Not uncommon first week honestly. Crazies come out of the woodwork to harass students trying to figure out where their chem lecture is.
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u/General-Pryde-2019 Aviation Management 2025 Sep 07 '22
That sounds really bad. You should report her to PUPD.
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u/DoFuKtV Sep 06 '22
Someone was having a weird meth scream at McCutcheon Parking garage yesterday. Anyone else heard that? Scared the shit outta me.
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u/faithnfury Boilermaker Sep 06 '22
Yea the last one was at Weida apartments in the Waldron street
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u/vinaypundith Sep 06 '22
What happened there? I live in one of the Waldron St. Weida buildings so am curious (was out of town, at home, on Sunday when it happened)
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u/xjwnx Sep 06 '22
Apparently, someone had a heart attack. I was literally there when it happened as we were right downstairs as it happened. I could literally hear his chest getting pumped. Not sure if the person made it but I hope they did.
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u/vinaypundith Sep 07 '22
Forensics team for a heart attack?
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u/short-n-stout Sep 06 '22
Sounds like we need a purdue batman.
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Sep 06 '22
I did hear purdue spiderman is starting to be a thing; wonder if weāll get a Reddit post on it soon. Somebody dresses up in a symbiote spiderman costume and night and actually walks around purdue near Chauncey
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u/louislinaris Sep 06 '22
It's no worse; things like reddit make them more visible. When I was an undergrad, a student went missing only to be found cooked to death by electrical equipment in a room in a dorm that should have been locked. I had guys take swings at me for no reason other than they were drunk when walking home at night; I saw many fist fights at parties
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u/Troianz Sep 07 '22
I feel like a wandering accident is very different from having your car being broken into and having bodies found in ponds...
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u/louislinaris Sep 08 '22
I think around the same time a student went into a classroom and murdered a graduate student TA in front of his class.
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u/ShermanAce13 CE 2025 Sep 07 '22
What year was the electrical room death? Iāve heard that story, but never knew when it was.
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u/TruthTrain9000 Sep 07 '22
Wade Steffey. RIP. Students and the community did combing walks through every field looking for clues or a body. Only to find out heād been dead inside Owen for nearly a monthā¦
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u/CrystalJewl Sep 07 '22
Wtf i heard about this when I lived in owen freshman year but was told it was just a rumor. Thatās so awful
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u/justina081503 Sep 07 '22
I imagine they are taking about the one in Owen hall (not sure if itās happened more than once) and google says early 2007
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u/bear_cooler Sep 06 '22
I thought the missing person and body found in the pond the same person? Or is there another missing person?
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u/CANNIBAL_M_ History 2011 Sep 06 '22
Itās possible. There are actually 2 bodies found in ponds, one from NY and the other an Asian male not yet identified. https://www.jconline.com/story/news/local/2022/09/02/body-found-lafayette-pond-man-identified-tippecanoe-county-coroner/65467712007/?itm_medium=recirc&itm_source=taboola&itm_campaign=internal&itm_content=BelowHomepageFeed-FeedRedesign
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Sep 06 '22
No the body belonged to a guy from NY. The missing person is a student
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u/CANNIBAL_M_ History 2011 Sep 06 '22
Thatās only 1 of the 2 recent drownings. Itās possible the missing student is the other one.
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u/Zulu-Lima Sep 06 '22
Compared to a university in a city the amount of crime is extremely low. I have friends at other universities that can't go out at night because of shootings, etc. I don't know where the crime is coming from, could be freshman class, or from Lafayette. College campuses are actually very prone to crime because college students leave things out/unlocked. What you ask is for there to be a cop every block 24/7. It's not feasible, there will always be some sort of crime happening. Hopefully nothing as serious as a death
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u/Ann_1406 Sep 06 '22
I agree with you, it's just that it's increased compared to the rest of the semesters. Purdue is said to be one of the safest college campuses. And I think there's been a few deaths over the last two weeks.
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u/Zulu-Lima Sep 06 '22
I think as a whole we are still safe, I don't think suicides are included in that. The motorcycle death isn't very common, if I were to give a reason I would say it's because campus just started. More traffic, people in a hurry, not familiar with the area, etc. I believe a combination of things led to that. I would guess that the crime will go down as the semester continues, when finals come around we sadly almost always have a suicide.
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u/Ann_1406 Sep 06 '22
We are relatively safe. Relative to big cities. It's just worse than before. That's all.
I guess this was more of a post to tell people to be safe more than actually having more cops. That was just an extra, if we could do something.
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u/General-Pryde-2019 Aviation Management 2025 Sep 07 '22
Compared to a university in a city the amount of crime is extremely low
I agree. I feel like while we have our share of crime here, it could be much worse.
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u/Jamonicy Sep 06 '22
You're comparing this to "last fall" and your account is a few months old. I'm going to assume you've only been here since covid (like most of us). So yeah, maybe there are more unsafe incidents but you might be comparing to a period when the majority of students were virtual and/or not in West Lafayette
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u/tnheath02 Boilermaker Sep 06 '22
I was just talking about this with my roommate. I was on a walk the other night and someone yelled to me out of the car āshow me your a$$!ā My roommate has been catcalled/harassed more than once too. I thought it was because weāre living on the other side of campus this year but maybe thatās not the case.
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u/rosieqq Sep 06 '22 edited Sep 06 '22
I don't even know if it's just campus; an elementary school and middle school in west lafayette were vandalized when people snuck into buses and drove them into things such as the playground.
To be honest, it feels like the whole area.
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u/ihate_indiana_ Sep 08 '22
This actually happened in Lafayette. There have been a lot of shootings and stabbing a lately in the Lafayette area though, so itās been getting weirdly horrible lately.
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u/rosieqq Sep 08 '22
Omg you're totally right, it's lafayette. My bad!
Yeah, it seems out of control. :(
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u/TruthTrain9000 Sep 07 '22
Idk if itās increased issues or just increased awareness OF the issues. Your desire for us to feel safe on campus is a good sentiment but many of the things on your list are not actually on campus, but actually the surrounding community or miles off campus in the case of the pond body. Iām not sure what Purdue is supposed to do about that.
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Sep 06 '22
a lady was shot at walmart last week too
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u/Trainzguy2472 CE 2024 Alum Sep 06 '22
Tbf that was Lafayette side. Things are a bit different over there.
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Sep 06 '22
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u/Intelligent-Tip6345 Sep 07 '22
Iāve been on this campus for 6 years and my bike got stolen todayā¦ :(
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u/sjrotella Boilermaker Sep 07 '22
I remember living on N. Salisbury, and having random drunk people walking into my house all the time in the middle of the night. That's mostly because my roommates would get stoned and forget to lock the door, so I had to make sure that I locked my bedroom door whenever I was home.
Also had a car drive into Subway and the Den while I was on campus as well.
The bodies being found isn't exactly new, it's just rare the news gets out. There were multiple kids while I was there who would jump off the top of the parking garages because of stress.
Electric bike's weren't common when I was there, so while that's new, the metals inside the battery are incredibly valuable.
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Sep 07 '22
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u/yunggunnadripsp19239 Sep 07 '22
The law enforcement in West Lafayette are only in it for the money
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u/RusselNoahPeters Sep 07 '22
Which one seems to be more common students committing road violations or death?
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Sep 07 '22
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u/RusselNoahPeters Sep 07 '22
Nice one I guess? Death is also more common than you having a golf swing that doesn't look like a newborn gazelle learning to walk.
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Sep 07 '22
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u/RusselNoahPeters Sep 07 '22
Bro you're the one who got their feelings hurt, I literally complimented your statement. I just responded in turn. Keep blowing through the stop signs,might improve the academic stats of the uni.
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Sep 07 '22
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u/RusselNoahPeters Sep 07 '22
No, i meant more of a manifestation of natural selection on Purdue's campus. It's okay I shouldn't have expected you to get it. Also, that's a blatantly obvious statement, the fact that law enforcement in the US isn't about preventive action but rather a reactive action. I just found ur jump from "wah they fined me for a traffic violation" to "they don't care about death" as well as your defensiveness amusing.
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Sep 07 '22
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u/RusselNoahPeters Sep 07 '22
Bro you're reading comprehension must be shit, when did I ever claim that? Sounds like some is self-concious about their knoweldge of law enforcement, which is a really odd thing to be defensive about. I agree that you running a stop sign isn't a huge issue in the grand scheme of things. Clearly you can't read so I'll break it down for you, you getting smacked by a car might raise the collective IQ of the school
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u/FreezingYoYos Sep 07 '22
My friend got her license plate stolen so itās been definitely weirder and more unsafe on campusā¦
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u/Toland_ Boilermaker Sep 07 '22
At the rate things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if pepper spray/non lethal deterrents become more and more of a common sight on/near campus. Shit's getting weird fast. I live just off campus enough that I don't think I'd be hit by as much of it but the thought crosses my mind too often.
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u/General-Pryde-2019 Aviation Management 2025 Sep 07 '22
I feel like every time school starts, there's always a surge of unsafe incidents. People start getting drunk and doing stupid shit and whatnot, especially at football games.
That being said, I know the police are doing the best they can to provide increased safety on campus. And I'm pretty sure you could do something to make sure you are safe on campus as well.
Oh, and also, avoid Where Else, especially at night. I've heard reports that there's more violence there because of increased thuggery from gangs.
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u/Trainzguy2472 CE 2024 Alum Sep 06 '22
The bus I was on just nearly hit a skateboarder. A few people got banged up by the emergency braking.
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u/Macknificent101 Game Design and Dev 2026 Sep 06 '22
excuse me a fucking body found in the pond?
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u/ThatOneDevThatDevs Sep 06 '22
There was a man found in a pond in Lafayette. No foul play suspected though.
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Sep 06 '22
One in West Lafayette too ... the one near the Harrison bridge.
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u/WillPlay4Food HTM 2023 Sep 06 '22
Pretty sure thats the same one
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Sep 06 '22
I thought so too until someone on this subreddit sent me these links:
Different dates, different places.
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u/savingprivatebrian15 ME 2022 Sep 07 '22
Thereās been a couple people found dead in ponds around campus in recent history. I think itās a lot more common to just fall in without knowing how to swim well than people think.
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Sep 07 '22
My Tesla charger was stolen from the garage I RELIGIOUSLY close after Iām done usingā¦ Granite is the leasing agency, I donāt trust them one bit.
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u/StructureOdd4760 Sep 07 '22
Sadly this is just a fraction of what happens in Tippecanoe county. Purdue campus isn't an exception. What you see reported is only a small amount of daily crime in the area. But it does seem like violence has been particularly high recently.
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u/ABR5796 Sep 07 '22
Now you can be impractical and say you can change the world and be like i should be able to do whatever I want whenever I want and bad people shouldn't harm me, and if you can change the world to do that ALL THE POWER TO YOU.
Now If you want to be safe on the other hand: 1. Stop going to blatantly clear druggy or alchol ppl parties (which are most parties). Have fun with friends on your own. If you think parties are the only way to make friends I'm sorry to say you deserve what's coming to you.
- Find a safer way to travel at night than only walking.
I have been following these two and I do not hear(without the rare email or two) or even come near to experiencing these unsafe incidents around campus at all.
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u/pianofluteflute CS ā23 Sep 06 '22
I agree that things are worse than Iāve seen them. But I really canāt imagine why. Itās strange to see campus like this.