When Kaneland sophomore Samantha Williams returned from P.E. class, she expected her items to be safely stored in her locker where she had left them. She was wrong.

“Someone broke into my locker and stole my iPod Touch, and a few other girls in my class got their debit cards stolen,” Williams said.

Though School Resource Officer Paul Warren said break-ins are not as problematic as last year, so far, there are 30 complaints about stolen items, mostly from the locker room. He said the theft is higher because a lot of students aren’t reporting them, either because they think they lost the item or are afraid they will get in trouble for bringing electronics to school.

The thefts led to the Kane County Sherriff’s Office placing electronics with tracking devices around the school.

“Tracking devices were placed in different items, to see if they would get stolen,” Warren said.

Someone took the bait, stole an item with a tracking device and got caught. Since then, there have been no more reports of items stolen from the locker room.

“It seems like things are slowing down, and I hope that trend continues,” Warren said.

Security cameras have helped in the hallways to identify the person who broke in, but the locker rooms have been easier targets because there are no cameras.

“Part of the reason that we don’t want you to bring electronics to school is that they can get stolen,” Warren said.

While there have been a number of thefts, few lockers are actually being broken into, Renee Grisch, Dean of Students, said. The problem mainly occurs when lockers are not properly secured.

If the locker is opened or jammed, people will get in. If it’s closed and locked, very few happen, Grish said.

Want an easy way to prevent lockers from being broken into? Grisch advised that the best way to keep items from being stolen is to invest in a lock for the gym locker rooms and make sure lockers are tightly closed in the hallway.