Bakersfield College is stepping up its security following a string of car thefts on campus.
The majority of those cars have been Hondas.
Thursday night, two more cars were stolen, leading Bakersfield Police on a pursuit and landing two people behind bars.
Nearly 17,000 people attend Bakersfield College. Police say large parking lots usually tend to be target areas.
"It's just an unfortunate situation that we are such an open campus, that anyone can come up to Bakersfield College and take a vehicle and leave a student in the lurch," said Bakersfield College spokeswoman Amber Chiang.
Chiang said the college is working closely with police and upping its security following recent car thefts on campus.
"Typically the fall and spring semester is when we have the most students," said Chiang. "We'll see an uptick on vehicle thefts around the first few weeks because we have the most students on campus, the most vehicles on campus, until people start finding their schedules and know when they can come and go."
Thursday night, Chiang said two more cars were stolen from campus, one was a Honda.
Bakersfield police say an officer noticed a black Honda speeding out of the BC parking lot around 8 p.m. Officers followed the car and a pursuit began. The car later crashed into a fence and the suspects ran off, but officers soon arrested them.
Police say the car had just been stolen from BC.
"If the car thief wants the car, chances are pretty good they're going to get the car," said Sgt. Joe Grubbs, Bakersfield Police Department.
Grubbs said a lot of stolen Hondas end up going to chop shops.
"They're building, taking parts off of them, building other cars. It's just almost a numbers thing," said Grubbs. "There's just a lot of them out there. They're relatively easy to steal and they get stolen. The crooks like them."
Bakersfield police and the CHP both have task forces and are working to put chop shops out of business.
By law, Bakersfield College had to issue warnings this week to all of its students about the string of car thefts.
"We are so dependent upon the nearly 17,000 students that walk our halls to report something in order to stop something," said Chiang.
If you have any information on these car thefts, call police at 327-7111.
