Seven cars were vandalized in the Hilltop parking lot at the Mount Carmel campus Thursday morning, according to Quinnipiac Security. Security found the vandals, but did not disclose their names.

According to Chief of Security & Safety David Barger, the vehicles weren’t targeted because of the type of cars they were.

[media-credit name=”Photo courtesy of Rachael Kuhn” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]“The vandalism ranged from spitting on cars, to breaking mirrors, to breaking radio antennas off of cars,” Barger said.

The vandalized cars had bent-up side view mirrors, bent antennas and spit and cigarette butts on the window, sophomore Rachael Kuhn said. All cars had the same pattern of vandalizing, according to Kuhn, one of the victims.

There was no sign of a break-in to Kuhn’s car, she said.

The vandalized vehicles were on a straight path from the vehicle the four young men got out of, all in the same vicinity, Barger said.

According to Barger, the vehicles were behind the 600s; a straight line all the way to resident halls.

“In the larger picture, for the number of cars that are parked there, we really don’t suffer a great deal of vandalism,” Barger said. “But we frown upon it.”

[media-credit name=”Photo courtesy of Rachael Kuhn” align=”alignleft” width=”225″][/media-credit]Kuhn has parked her car in Westwoods her freshman year, but didn’t have any problems.

“When [my car] was [in Westwoods], I didn’t feel that it was unsafe there,” Kuhn said. “But I feel like it should be even safer here when it’s on campus, apparently not.”

Hilltop is under video surveillance in addition to frequent security patrols. The vandalism was found by security while on patrol.

“We run patrols on a regular basis up there,” Barger said. “We [also] staff the lot with a security officer. We were able to put all this together with what we had in between, looking at the damage, looking at the vehicles parked around where the damage occurred, and going back to the recording.”

According to Barger, the vandals met with a representative of residential life and Hamden police, deciding that a restitution would be made to the owners of the vehicles for the damage that occurred.

The cost for Kuhn’s car repairs was an estimated $900 for new side view mirrors and a new radio antenna.

Hamden police have the vandals on record but did not place them under arrest, Barger said.

Hamden police were not available to comment.

“We’re living here in a community and we need to be, as it says in the student handbook, respectful of each other’s property, I would impress that upon everyone,” Barger said.