Illinois Wesleyan students were hit with quite the surprise Sunday morning when multiple students found their vehicle mirrors damaged by what looked like physical force the night before.
The Oct. 26 attacks were not limited to one area of campus, with cars being vandalized at multiple campus buildings and residences.
“I had my car parked in the CNS lot over the weekend, and when I came to move it on Monday, the driver’s side mirror had been snapped off and was hanging by a few wires,” senior Rachel Gatliff said.
Gatliff reported the damage to Campus Safety at 12 p.m. on the following day, but was not provided any help due to the weather conditions at the time of the attack.
“Campus Safety told me that there was another car the night when mine got hit but it’s hard to know who it was because the rain makes the cameras blurry,” Gatliff said.
Cars on Main Street and in the Funsell Hall parking lot were also vandalized, according to Campus Safety reports.
“I went out to my car on Sunday morning and noticed the passenger side mirror of my car was pushed almost completely against the windshield of my car.
It was barely attached by the last few wires,” sophomore Katie Fata said.
Fata noted that the damage happened late Saturday night because she did not leave her house for the last time until around 10 p.m.
“I didn’t report it to Campus Safety because I was sure it was an isolated incident and I didn’t know what they would be able to do about it.
It just seemed like a drunk person had taken out some anger on my car on their walk home,” Fata said.
Students affected did not realize their vehicle damage was not isolated until they started to share what had happened.
“When I shared what had happened with others, I realized that it wasn’t just me because multiple mentioned friends of theirs had found damage on Sunday as well,” Fata said.
The vandal did not treat each vehicle the same, with different severities of damage reported by each owner.
“I first noticed my mirror shoved out of visibility on Sunday afternoon.
“I didn’t report anything but once I heard other people talking about it I realized I too had been struck by the serial smasher,” sophomore Sarah Buchmann said.
The vandals has yet to be caught, and no further vehicle owners have come forward about mirror-related damages.