<p>My D’s both have 2-drawer filing cabinets that have a lock for the bottom drawer. It fits under their desk, and D1 used it to keep her laptop, camera and other valuables, and used the top drawer as a file cabinet for papers, etc. Usually dorm thefts are crimes of convenience…unlocked doors and stuff out in the open where it can be grabbed quickly.</p>
<p>Small safes can be bought at places such as Target and Walmart. A small one to keep important things- some cash, in would be useful- also find out if yourdorm room has a lockable drawer (you provide the lock). It could be the person down the hall or elsewhere in the building that has sticky fingers.</p>
<p>My kids both attended a very urban U in a “bad” neighborhood. S’s freshman dorm had a built-in safe in the closet–one on his side & one on his room mate’s side. As best I know, neither of them nor anyone else in their dorm ever used it (it was a holdover from the Olympics in 1964 or so). Since then, S has never had a safe, nor has D. The only theft S has ever experienced was when he left his wallet & cell phone on the U gym bench & went to the bathroom! So far, D thought she lost her wallet & has lost her cell phone but don’t believe a safe would have helped the situation.</p>
<p>We have always taught our kids to keep things out of sight whenever possible so that they are not attractive targets. That has worked well for us & our kids. Safes that are less than 200-300 pounds are easily carried away by thieves and an attractive target for them (they figure it must contain something of great value). For home safes, they recommend that it be buried in concrete so it won’t be carted off by thieves.</p>
<p>There have been several prior threads on this topic, if you search the parents forum and perhaps the parent cafe forum.</p>
<p>One more point, I have heard some students say that they use a small safe as an organizing tool, so they know where all their valuables are at any time.</p>
<p>We bought a hotel safe at costco last Aug. DS uses it all the time for important documents, electronics, and medications. Very good investment IMHO.</p>
<p>Does your S take medication people would be likely to steal? (ADHD meds?) I can’t imagine my son unlocking a safe to take his medications every night, but he doesn’t take anything anyone else would want. ;-)</p>
<p>Neighbor’s S was in the dorms his freshman year in HI. Something got stolen from his dorm room. Then during Christmas break, someone broke into a locked drawer in his desk and stole his CDs. That was the last straw! His parents pulled him out of the dorm–the school refunded the money he had already paid for the next semester and he moved off campus.</p>
<p>So yes, there are schools that have thievery problems.</p>
<p>Having said that, neither of my 2 Ds have had anything stolen from their rooms. The oldest and her roomies were not very careful about keeping the door locked if no one was going to be there…until a night when a drunken guy dressed only in his underwear came into their dorm room and tried to go to sleep on the couch. He thought their room was his room (on the floor above) and it took quite a bit of muscling to get him out of their room.</p>
<p>They started to lock their door religiously after that!</p>
<p>When you said; “I honestly feel sorry for the poor soul who dares to touch my belongings.”, I shuddered. College dorms are only a few steps down from communal living. If you don’t want your stuff “touched”, don’t bring it to school. People are always borrowing things (and returning them) as not everyone moves everything from home to school. But with enough people in the dorm, you can always find what you need. I mean stuff like a screwdriver and the like. </p>
<p>Do lock your room whenever you leave. Most dorms this means NOT propping the door open as most close and lock automatically. My daughter got a lanyard for her room key and just wore it around her neck. And do lock your laptop with a cable as laptops are the most stolen item. Daughters school had a laptop regstration system where they could trace a stolen laptop to where they were connecting to the school servers. Not foolproof but something. Check out to see what your school has to offer. They do have LoJack for laptops and it bears some looking into.</p>
<p>Frazzled kids and friends have had clothing items stolen from unattended laundry in laundry rooms (but not from dorm rooms) and, believe it or not, have had unattended textbooks stolen from various campus locations, but never from dorm rooms. They have probably known to be careful about keeping items such as laptops, other electronics, and important ID’s either on their person or locked in their rooms, but learned the hard way that other types of petty theft also exist on campuses.</p>
<p>My daughter used a sturdy trunk with a lock to store valuables. It was too large for someone to easily pick up and leave with it. Inside she could fit a lockbox of important papers, her laptop, ipod, camera, medications, extra money etc. Some years she used the trunk as a table or a bench. Other years she slid it under the raised bed. They came in a variety of sizes. Her brother is now using it.</p>
<p>This type of dorm safe seems incredibly pointless to me. Why wouldn’t a thief just take the safe and open it at his leisure?</p>
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<p>The difference is … in a hotel room, the safe is built-in … you can’t pick it up and carry it anywhere. A safe that can be carried out of the room easily is, by definition, not secure from anyone. I do think the idea of built-in safes in dorm rooms akin to what is in a hotel has merit, but that’s precisely because they are built-in and thus secure.</p>
<p>Well, that’s why I suggested a built-in safe would be far superior unless you bring one that weighs 300 pounds. I did not really endorse the carry-in safe as that equals a carryout safe. Anyone relying on dorm “security” is just wishful thinking. Codes are given out, doors propped open, etc etc. Unless the school is in some high crime area must students are not very security oriented. Ease trumps that all the time.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not schlepping a 300 pound safe up to the umpteenth floor 
I think we’re in agreement more than we are in disagreement.</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestions, everyone! =)</p>
<p>Another question: I’m reading that homeowner’s insurance may also cover possessions while in college. Maybe I will bring up that question to my parents for them to do research with their respective home insurance companies.</p>
<p>Has anyone ever used this option? And if so (obviously coverage varies by company, state, etc.), how much coverage did they allot to you?</p>
<p>My daughter’s jewelry is all listed / broken out separately on our homeowners, in the same way that my jewelry is listed / broken out separately. Not that she’s taking umpteen thousand dollars worth of diamonds, but she has diamond earrings that she wears everyday, a pearl necklace, etc. The coverage covers you everywhere; college should be no exception.</p>
<p>Your parents’ homeowners insurance will likely cover your possessions, but if they have a typical deductible of around $500, you can see that many things that might be stolen would not even be worth making a claim for.</p>
<p>There’s a company that provides dorm room insurance that many on CC have used for their kids. I seem to remember that the reviews were pretty good. I’ll leave it for someone who has used it to cough up the particulars.</p>
<p>D1 never had anything stolen at college. D2 has had a jacket stolen at a frat party. It was a nice REI jacket, purple in color, so it is not like someone mistook it for her own. She now has a ratty “frat party jacket” to take to these sorts of parties. The kids already know not to keep cell phones, credit cards, or money in those jackets that will be left unattended.</p>
<p>The DormVault cube safe and laptop safe work well. They have a bolt-type thing that fastens them to your bed or another piece of furniture so they aren’t easy to walk out with. They take only a couple of minutes to install.
They are good for keeping passport, checks, credit card, etc., in one convenient place, and might offer some protection from fire/smoke/sprinkler damage.</p>
<p>The coverage you want is a separate personal articles policy. Your homeowner’s insurance company will write the policy. There is no deductible and claims do not affect the premium for the homeowner’s policy. It is very reasonably priced. You just add valuables to the policy as you acquire them - the same as you would do with jewelry. I have my D’s computer on mine. Everything is covered - accidental damage, theft, etc. </p>
<p>My D uses a large trunk at school that was stored under her bed. She used it for storage but could also lock valuables in it. Of course, someone could steal the trunk but it wouldn’t be easy to get it out from the under the bed or out of the room without being noticed. I think thieves would move on to an easier target. She also used a laptop cable lock.</p>