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PROVO — Police are investigating multiple car thefts. Officers said one car was stolen from the Salt Lake area and another was taken right off the Brigham Young University campus.
BYU student Sam Stockwell said he parks his car in the same spot every day, directly outside his residence hall, just off 900 East.
"I like parking closer just so I know I can keep my eye on it, check on it," he said. "It was really bizarre to me when I came out that morning and the car was just gone."
Stockwell said he discovered his 1993 blue Honda Civic, with North Carolina plates and the cargo carrier attached, was gone around 5 a.m. Tuesday.
"I walked to the parking lot and I noticed there was nothing there in the spot where I left my car," he said. "I was like, 'Huh, wonder if somebody stole my car or something,' I said to myself jokingly."
He said he immediately called police who arrived a short time later.
"Checked the spot out, shone a light on it, no broken glass or anything," Stockwell said.
Stockwell said his car was locked, but said because it is an older vehicle, it was likely easier for the thief or thieves to break in.
Surveillance video from around 2 a.m. Tuesday shows two people who police say took the blue Honda Civic. Cameras across campus captured two men between 25 and 35 years old, both around 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, wearing backpacks.
In an email to students, police said one of them wore a dark coat, a baseball cap, dark shoes and light-colored pants. They said the other wore dark-colored pants, dark shoes, a dark coat and had dark, short hair with a beard and mustache.
BYU police said the two men arrived on campus in a Honda Accord. Investigators said that car was stolen out of West Valley City.
Investigators said the pair left the Honda Accord in the Creamery on Ninth parking lot.
"Then they walked all the way up there to my car," Stockwell said.
Stockwell said police told him they took off in his Honda Civic about 20 minutes later.
"I really just think I was unlucky," he said.
They don't know who the thieves are. BYU police returned the Honda Accord to its owner.
Stockwell hopes he sees his car again. He said, while it's just a car, it had sentimental value.
"I got the car about a year ago from a friend of mine," he said. "He had wrecked it and he was just trying to get rid of it, and I bought it and pieced it back together."
He recently took the car on a 3,000-mile road trip from his home state of North Carolina to Utah.
"To me, it represented more than just a car," Stockwell said. "It was accomplishing something. It was rebuilding an engine as a mechanic and then doing something really crazy with it immediately after."
In the email sent to students, BYU police reminded drivers to lock their vehicles and remove any valuables.
Anyone with information on the vehicle theft should contact BYU police at 801-422-0911.
