<p>My brother's college sent him a flyer about renting a safe and showed a guy putting his laptop and stuff in there (mine did not)... is this kind of thing necessary? Should I get one?</p>
<p>I think it depends upon your school.</p>
<p>My school is quite small and everyone in the dorm knew everyone else. I could leave my room to go do something with the door open and my valuables every where and nothing ever got stolen. </p>
<p>Regardless of the school i think keeping the door locked when you leave would be safe enough. Unless you don't trust your roommate, but I would personally never be that paranoid.</p>
<p>So all in all, I personally think its not worth it. I simply had a hiding place for my most valuable things (check book, etc)</p>
<p>for your laptop, buy one of those cord locks and lock it to the radiator or your chair or something like that.</p>
<p>Hiding spaces for everything else should work. Dorm thefts usually are someone walking into your unlocked empty room, taking the first, most valuable, portable item in plainsight, and walking out. For instance, I have never heard of someone having something stolen from inside a drawer, but do hear about laptops on desks or ipods in docks on shelves.</p>
<p>It's definitely not necessary, but people would probably think it was pretty cool if you told them you kept valuables and lots of cash in it.</p>