Six license plates were reported stolen from Parking Structure 1 last week, but ASU police are unsure if the incidents were related, a public safety department representative said.
The plates were stolen between Monday and Wednesday from Structure 1, which is located just west of the Student Recreation Complex.
"It could be mere coincidence," said Leah Hardesty, spokeswoman for the ASU Department of Public Safety.
But Hardesty added DPS has several theories about the sudden increase in license plate thefts.
Plates are often taken to be placed on stolen vehicles, Hardesty said.
"They'll look for a license plate that is on a vehicle that is similar to the one they have stolen," Hardesty said.
None of the stolen plates were from Arizona.
Sgt. Jim Hardina, DPS investigations unit supervisor, said this may indicate they were stolen as a prank or part of a scavenger hunt.
"If it continues to happen, then we'll have to look a little bit deeper," Hardina said.
Police have no suspects at this time, Hardesty said.
DPS does not plan to change any procedures in response to the recent thefts, she added.
Hardesty said officers are told to patrol the parking structures when not responding to a call.
"We're doing our best to patrol the parking lots all throughout the day and the night," she said.
But students should take precautions when securing a license plate to a vehicle, Hardesty said.
Using bolt heads that require an Allen wrench deters many thieves, Hardesty said.
"Most thieves ... wouldn't carry an Allen wrench," Hardesty said.
Placing screws in all four license plate holes also makes a plate less susceptible to theft, Hardesty said.
Plates that are only bolted in two places are more likely to be stolen, she added, because they can be removed quickly.
When a license plate is stolen, the first thing to do is notify police, Hardesty said.
From there, the information goes into a database so police all over the Valley are aware the plate has been stolen, she said.
ASU Parking and Transit Services has access to this database and tries not to give tickets to vehicles with recently stolen plates, said Mark Krug, PTS spokesman.
"We definitely wouldn't want to ticket somebody ... just because [his license plate] was stolen the day before," Krug said.
But there is a lapse between the time a burglary is reported and when it shows up in the database, so it is a good idea to report stolen plates directly to PTS, Krug said.
It's usually just a matter of time before stolen plates are located, Hardesty said.
The plates are often found when officers run license-plate checks for traffic violations or suspected vehicle thefts, Hardesty said.
"Usually they do get recovered within a few days," she said.
Reach the reporter at shea.drefs@asu.edu.
