The economy is still in a plunge and students are looking for ways to save all the money that they can.

Riding a bike to school and not wasting money on gas seem to be a perfect idea.

However, there has been an increase in bike thefts on campus and the Campus Police is advising students to take greater measures to protect their bikes.

“There’s a lot of contributing factors as to why more bikes are getting stolen,” Sgt. Dal Toruno of the Police Department, said. “There are more bikes on campus due to the economy. Another issue is because some bikes are very expensive, but the thieves are targeting both expensive and inexpensive bikes.”

Toruno added that some students don’t use locks or they’ll only wrap the lock around the tires and handlebars, making them more vulnerable to get their property stolen.

“We have various bikes racks throughout campus,” Toruno said.  (However, some students) use light posts making them more vulnerable.”

Leilani Ikahihifo, 18, humanities and dance major, who rides a bike to school, was a victim to a bike thief.

“I use my bike to go to school, church, my bank, family member’s houses,” Ikahihifo said. “It’s like my car. It hurt because the people that steal, don’t think that people use their bikes for everything.”

Ikahihifo said that he went to the police, filled out a report and gave the police a picture of the bike. He added that the officers and cadets were helpful.

“Between a Tuesday and Thursday we had nine bikes stolen all over campus,” Toruno said. “We caught three bike thieves in a total of three weeks. We already have surveillance all around campus and we are in the process of setting up more surveillance.”

Toruno added that not only are students stealing bikes, but non-students are stealing them as well.

“We caught one thief; he wasn’t a student here and he was a juvenile,” Toruno said. “We also caught people working in pairs and they were students here.”

With a variety of thieves roaming around campus, students who ride bikes need to stay on high alert, Toruno said.

“What students can do to help prevent bike theft is use the designated bike racks,” Toruno said. “If you have an expensive bike, you should invest in a quality lock. We recommend that students use kryptonite locks and we also encourage students to write down the serial numbers.”