Lights Out At Unitec
By staceyk
| Published Sunday, 29 March, 2009
Drunken girls scrambling up hills, funny smelling ghosts, couples steaming up their car windows and burglars hiding around dark corners are all in a normal night for the Unitec Safety and Security team, as Stacey Knott finds.
With nothing better to do on a Saturday night, I decide to see what happens at the Mount Albert campus after dark, tagging along with the three security guards patrolling the campus, Tarun, Kamran and Raymond.*
I find what goes down on campus is astutely watched and recorded, and security guards have some pretty good stories. The guards are on constant look out for taggers, burglars and drunks. The night starts with the lockdown, where we visit all the buildings to lock them and set the alarms, or ensure they are already locked and alarmed. This starts with the Library and ends with Building One.
As we lock up Building Six, Tarun says many of the break-ins are people looking for valuables such as laptops. We spend about two hours going in and out of the maze of the buildings checking all the external doors, only accompanied by long torches. A few alarms go off during the night but no burglars are spotted, however they have had some scary run-ins in the past, Tarun says.
“I have come across face-to-face, two burglars, they had all sorts of tools with them to fight with and two friends waiting in the car.”
Lucky for the unarmed guards, the pair ran and did not take anything. Tarun says they need some sort of defensive equipment when they are on patrol at night and come across situations like this. However, New Zealand law restricts such items to the police.
The night before, the guards saw some people tagging a building down the northern end. The taggers saw they had been spotted, security chased them, however, they got away. Being unarmed though, security must observe and report, relying on thier vigilance, notebooks and pens.
In places Unitec is really dark at night. Walking down from Building One to meet the guards at Building 16, I had to walk through pitch black, surrounded by trees, using my cell phone light to guide me. This is one of the biggest problems areas for darkness I find.
Tarun says the dark and isolation of some areas is uncomfortable for students heading back to Accommodation, aside from the darkness they also have to pass the Mason Clinic- home to the criminally insane. While there has never been an incident of a patient from the clinic accosting a student, the presence of the clinic can be alarming for some people.
Early in the round we visit the Oakley Creek Bridge, a prime example of an isolated destination, however, the area is lit with floodlights and covered by security cameras.
Last year a student was attacked and robbed in Oakley Creek, which was captured on the security cameras. The incident was a set-up; the victim was hit, and his laptop, cell-phone and wallet were stolen.
Throughout the night, the guards point out the numerous trouble spots, such as the UATI and PIPA complexes. A common theme is they are all dark and, after midnight, they go pitch black, the perfect environment for trouble to brew.
People don’t realise the campus is not always safe place to hang out at night, Raymond says.
The guards’ boss Safety and Security Supervisor Paul Hoverd says he does not have a problem with most of the people legitimately on campus after hours, because they provide extra eyes and ears for the guards which should deter criminals. However the guards themselves find it would be better if the people were not there.
But, because it is an open campus, with a public access route, policing people on campus proves hard.
A young couple sitting by the business school are cautiously approached by Raymond, who asks what they are doing.
They answer with bemused looks “we’re just having a walk and sitting here.”
“Are you students?” he asks.
“Yes…we were just on a walk and are taking a break.”
The grilling seemed a little odd, clearly they were harmless but Raymond says it is for their own sake, its better they are not on campus at night.
Likewise, a couple driving to Unitec for a bit of privacy is also a no-no in security’s books.
The night before this investigation security had to ask two couples steaming up their cars to move on.
When Tarun and Kamran head off to Building One to start the lockup, they try to convince me to go with them, to overcome my fear of ghosts in the building, but I’m a wimp. I stick with Raymond and the safety of the van.
Raymond reveals through the night how he feels about ghosts in the allegedly haunted buildings. While he is not set either way on their existence, he says he prays before entering Building One sometimes.
“Sometimes it feels like there are extra eyes looking out of the building (at me).”
He points out a rambling old staircase outside the building, and says whenever he is near it, he gets a cold feeling.
When patrolling outside the area sometimes he sees things.
“Sometimes I’ll open my eyes and see someone, and then close them and open again and they will be gone.”
As the night goes on, he opens up more to his to experiences, saying it is mainly a feeling, or sometimes a smell that makes him think someone is there with him when he is patrolling.
“It smells like old stuff something old and different or a smell of old perfume or candles sometimes,” he says.
Though he does not see any cause to be concerned.
“If they’re happy they let you feel it as well.”
Our conversation is interrupted by some drunken yahooing over at the rugby ields. We see two young drunk girls, shoeless, scrambling up the bank. They stumble down the road to get their taxi, and turn around to face us in the van like lost rabbits caught in the spotlight.
With a party going on at Carrington’s we assume that’s where they came from.
Also on the night round, is visiting the vet to stand guard while the nurse takes the dogs out onto the lawn to do their business.
The guards astutely note where people are hanging out and radio through to each other who they see and where they are, predicting their movements.
Raymond sees two people with hoodies up, and calls the others about them.
“People use Unitec to cut through to Waterview. At night it’s dangerous they might have sharp objects or a bottle ready to smash us,” Raymond says.
“We have to deal with people loitering around at night, we have to be skilful, we don’t want to antagonise at night. If we antagonise them it can backfire on us, they could graffiti or break a window,”he says.
Later I discover the guards also work as chauffeurs; we come across two girls walking through the dark lanes of Unitec, heading back to the village after a night out, and give them a lift, the 500 or so metres it is.
At 1am I am starting to feel ill from lack of sleep and my eyes start to glaze, the others, however are fine.
Tarun says it is important they take breaks and refreshments to keep themselves awake and alert, because their jobs depend on them being healthy, awake and aware.
While tonight doesn’t seem like there’s too much going down, Hoverd says there is a variety of things that can happen any given night on campus.
“If there are cars around campus they might get broken into or stolen, or Unitec can be used as a dumping ground for stolen vehicles. We’ve had cars recovered here that have been stolen previously, the most significant incidence of that was last year just before Christmas where a car was stolen locally, and driven into Unitec and set on fire and just about burnt down a nearby classroom.”
At 2am I’ve seen enough, and with security being as careful as they are, they drive me the 200 metres to meet my taxi. While I’m a little disappointed there were no burglars to catch or angry young men punching each other to photograph, I’m certainly sure Unitec is in safe hands at night.