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Columbia

Crime alert for two electric scooter thefts ten minutes apart on the main campus

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NYthefttimely warninghigh confidence
Under Investigation

Columbia University Public Safety issued a Clery Crime Alert for an electric scooter theft outside Jerome L. Greene Hall at about 4:28 PM on Monday, October 19, 2026, and a similar theft outside Philosophy Hall ten minutes later, both involving two people on electric scooters.

Alerts
1
Response
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Killed
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Injured
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Institution
Columbia University
Private R1 · NY
All Columbia cases →
~33,000 studentsColumbia Public Safety Clery Alert
Official alert policy
Read when and how Columbia says it will use Emergency Notification System: summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Documented Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Confirmed wording is transcribed character-for-character from a primary source. Use Verify this quote under each message to open that source in a new tab and compare the text yourself.

INITIAL ALERTWebsite
Verified verbatim2009 chars
Clery Crime Alert Motor Vehicle/E-Scooter Theft Columbia University Public Safety was recently informed of an electric scooter theft in front of Jerome L. Greene Hall, located at 435 West 116th Street. The incident occurred on Monday, October 19, 2026, at approximately 4:28 PM. A similar incident occurred on Monday, October 19, 2026, at approximately 4:38 PM, in front of Philosophy Hall, located at 1150 Amsterdam Avenue. Both incidents involved two unidentified individuals traveling on electric scooters. The suspects are shown in the photos below. No further information is available at this time. If you have any additional information about this incident, please contact Investigator Daley at 212-854-6634 and reference report number 26-003760 or 26-003789. Harm Reduction Strategies: No one is ever responsible for a crime committed against them. The responsibility lies entirely with the perpetrator. If something happens, we encourage you to report it. Reporting helps protect others and ensures you can access support and services. Report the incident to the Department of Public Safety at Morningside: 212-854-5555 Manhattanville: 212-853-3333 Medical Center: 212-305-7979 Consider registering your bicycles and other valuable property with Public Safety’s Operation ID program. When possible, avoid parking your bicycle or scooter at a non-designated location. Commuter Bicycle Parking enclosures can be found here. The Bicycle Parking map can be found here. Consider using a heavy-duty lock and/or chain to secure your bicycle or scooter. Tips on locking your bike can be found here. Disclaimer: Clery Crime Alerts (Timely Warning Notifications) are distributed pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act. Columbia University is required to alert the campus community when certain crimes occur in our Clery Act defined campuses that represent a serious or continuous threat to the community. For additional information, please visit our Clery Act website or email ps-compliance@columbia.edu
Read on 2026-11-09 from the official PDF.
The alert was likely also emailed; only the posted PDF was read.
The title glyph "ft" in "Theft" was dropped by the text layer and restored. The suspect photos referred to in the text are images and are not recorded.
Bullet glyphs were not extracted; list items are kept as separate lines.
Message elements

How the first alert is built

To check this alert, an AI model read it in full 25 separate times, independently. Each read decided whether the message answers each of the six questions and gave a short reason. A final reviewer then weighed all 25 and wrote the plain-English verdict you see when you open a row. The score (for example 22/25) is how many reads agreed; the 25 individual reads are tucked underneath if you want to check them.

Clery Crime Alert Motor Vehicle/E-Scooter Theft Columbia University Public Safety was recently informed of an electric scooter theft in front of Jerome L. Greene Hall, located at 435 West 116th Street. The incident occurred on Monday, October 19, 2026, at approximately 4:28 PM. A similar incident occurred on Monday, October 19, 2026, at approximately 4:38 PM, in front of Philosophy Hall, located at 1150 Amsterdam Avenue. Both incidents involved two unidentified individuals traveling on electric scooters. The suspects are shown in the photos below. No further information is available at this time. If you have any additional information about this incident, please contact Investigator Daley at 212-854-6634 and reference report number 26-003760 or 26-003789. Harm Reduction Strategies: No one is ever responsible for a crime committed against them. The responsibility lies entirely with the perpetrator. If something happens, we encourage you to report it. Reporting helps protect others and ensures you can access support and services. Report the incident to the Department of Public Safety at Morningside: 212-854-5555 Manhattanville: 212-853-3333 Medical Center: 212-305-7979 Consider registering your bicycles and other valuable property with Public Safety’s Operation ID program. When possible, avoid parking your bicycle or scooter at a non-designated location. Commuter Bicycle Parking enclosures can be found here. The Bicycle Parking map can be found here. Consider using a heavy-duty lock and/or chain to secure your bicycle or scooter. Tips on locking your bike can be found here. Disclaimer: Clery Crime Alerts (Timely Warning Notifications) are distributed pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act. Columbia University is required to alert the campus community when certain crimes occur in our Clery Act defined campuses that represent a serious or continuous threat to the community. For additional information, please visit our Clery Act website or email ps-compliance@columbia.edu

  • Sourceabsent0/0

    Who is sending the alert and who is responding. People act faster on a message from a clearly identifiable, credible sender, such as a named department, the police, or a branded alert system, than on an anonymous notice. A branded signature counts.

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  • Hazardabsent0/0

    What the threat actually is. A complete warning names the specific danger, such as a shooter, a fire, a tornado, or a gas leak, rather than a vague emergency, because people decide what to do based on what they are facing.

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  • Locationabsent0/0

    Where the threat is. Saying whether danger is in a specific building, a part of campus, or area-wide lets people judge their own proximity and choose a safe direction. Without a where, a warning is hard to act on precisely.

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  • Guidanceabsent0/0

    The protective action to take. A clear, specific instruction, such as shelter in place, evacuate, avoid the area, or run-hide-fight, drives faster and more correct protective behavior than describing the threat alone.

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    When the message applies. A timestamp, the word now or immediately, or a phrase like until further notice tells the reader whether the danger is current and how quickly to act.

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  • Impactabsent0/0

    What the hazard could do to the people in its path. Beyond naming the threat, a complete warning conveys its potential consequences or severity, such as that a tornado can level buildings or that a leak could be explosive, so recipients grasp how much danger they are in. Research on warning message content finds that a concrete impact statement helps people personalize their risk and act sooner.

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Systematic AI judgments with visible reasoning, not human-validated codings.

About this analysis
Context

Background

Columbia files e-scooter thefts under the Clery "motor vehicle theft" heading, which is why this property crime produced a timely warning. It followed the 80 Claremont aggravated assault alert two days earlier.
Analysis

Key Findings

Two thefts ten minutes apart were combined into one alert as a pattern.
Prevention tips were specific to scooters and bicycles (registration, designated parking, locks).
Outcome
The alert said no further information was available and that suspect photos were attached. No arrest was reported in the sources seen.
Provenance

Sources

Every claim on this page is meant to be checkable. Open the links below (and the Verify this quote control under each confirmed alert) to read the original university, news, or archive page yourself. Hostnames are shown so you can see where you are going; archived copies survive when live pages move or disappear. See also our methodology.

  1. Official
  2. Official
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "Columbia University: Crime alert for two electric scooter thefts ten minutes apart on the main campus." Incident of October 19, 2026. Added November 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/columbia-university-greene-hall-philosophy-hall-e-scooter-thefts-clery-crime-alert-2026-10-19/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
2026backfill-2026-10-12theftmotor-vehicle-theftprivate-r1new-yorkivyclery-crime-alerttimely-warningUnder Investigation
Added November 2026Updated November 2026Via ingestion