It's that sinking feeling in your gut when you go about your normal routine and you are walking out of your apartment towards your car and you see the passenger door ajar...definitely not how you left it. So I start looking through my car and taking inventory to see what is missing. Nice hiking shoes...check. Pull on boots for school...check. Coveralls...check. Umbrella...check. White board for studying...check. I start wondering, what in the world did they take?? Ah-ha....glove box...no flashlight. Wait...a car full of all this stuff and all they took was my flashlight?! Ok...weird.
The weirdness doesn't stop here though. Baffled by the criminal's choice of items from my car and desire to share the humor in the situation, I posted on my facebook a status just stating that I must have left my car door unlocked (just an FYI...I have no door handles on my car...just a nub on the passenger door that lets me open that door and then reach across and push the driver door open) and all that was taken was my flashlight. A fellow colleague and friend then posts that her roommates car was broken into that evening and a flashlight was left behind. After describing the flashlight to her, my flashlight was returned to me. Unfortunately the criminal stole the roommate's coveralls, lab coat, and scrubs....why were mine not taken from my car?? After offering to help purchase the items the roommate had lost to the theft incident, she promised me she already had immense help from her classmates and all items were restored.
Immediately after I was on campus that morning, I reported the incident to Safety and Security at the main gate. I also text my landlord and informed her of the break-ins as well as messaged all my neighbors so they were aware of the breach in security at our apartment complex. After my classes, I went home and studied well into the evening. I was at some point during the evening visited by two RUSVM Safety and Security officers (looking very snazzy in their new uniforms I might add). They were very polite, they evaluated my apartment and provided me with some helpful tips to keeping myself and belongings safe, interacted with my neighbors, interacted with my cats, and listened to my full story as well as asked some questions surrounding the incident.
The visit by our security officers made me feel slightly at ease. But still a little shaken up from the incident, I parked my car in the little patch of grass under my bedroom window (probably an eye sore to my neighbors lol) and had my boyfriend sleep over for a few nights.
It was maybe a day later that I received an email from our head of the Safety and Security department, Mr. Du Plessis. He requested a meeting with me at my earliest convenience. Immediately I thought I was in trouble for something (it was equivalent to the feeling you got in grade school when you were called to the principal's office)....even though I didn't do anything wrong lol. So I gave him my availability and we scheduled our meeting.
With a very commanding presence and his thick German accent...its hard not to be just a wee bit intimidated by Mr. Du Plessis. The first thing Mr. Du Plessis says to me is "What can we do to make you more happy during your stay here?". My immediate thought and what I then asked him was "What has given you the impression I'm not happy here?". And then ensued our hour long meeting which brought many interesting topics of discussion to the table. I shared with him some concerns I have heard (/seen on facebook) from my peers as well as their ideas (i.e. traffic stop issues, etc.). I also shared many ideas stemming from my experiences since being on the island (from patrol officers picking fruits off my landlord's trees and lying to my face about having permission to do so to many issues surrounding "mechanics" to the most recent situation of having my car broken into). And I listened to his insight and information regarding our safety department at RUSVM.
To be honest I was pretty impressed by the momentum and progress that our Safety and Security department has made. With the departure of Mr. Lynell Nolan, Mr. Du Plessis has taken on our Safety and Security department and continued to help the department grow as well as polish its rough edges. I'll share some of these happenings with you.
- Donations made to the local police force to strengthen the already growing relationship (a beautiful K9 unit, equipment, vehicles, etc.).
- Launching initiatives with the local police force such as an actual anonymous hotline for all St. Kitts residents to report any crimes/criminals (I was shocked...well kind of...to learn that there really isn't an anonymous hotline for locals to utilize to provide tips about any crimes or criminals at question; one of the biggest pushes for this hotline launch is to provide children with a way of reporting domestic violence in their homes).
- Continuing to recruit through a very selective process our Safety and Security staff members which must have not only resumes that provide evidence of their past related experiences but also surpass an interview process that Mr. Du Plessis conducts himself. Once on board, our Safetey and Security staff undergo intense training.
In conclusion to our meeting, Mr. Du Plessis requested that I help him in critiquing their current website for Safety and Security, survey my classmates on their thoughts/feelings/experiences/ideas regarding Safety and Security at RUSVM, and also provide a summary of the ideas that I had generated during our meeting.
I was definitely thrilled that he thought of me for such an interesting project. He probably saw me in action during the weekly SCAVMA meetings and took my recent experiences as an opportunity to pick my brain and gather a student's perspective on his department, staff, and ultimately our feelings regarding safety. I did appreciate his closing compliments regarding my character in that I am an individual that is very analytical and looks at all the pieces before continuing in a certain direction so to say.
So my "report" is due to him during our first week of school next semester and I am looking forward to what follows and comes from this project.