After spending an afternoon with friends, Greg Wright found he was the latest victim in a string of thefts at the university IM Sports facilities.

Wright had left his coat outside an indoor court at IM Sports-West and found his keys missing and his checkbook moved to another pocket when he returned.

He thought his friends were playing a joke on him until they also noticed they had been robbed. A small amount of money had been swiped from their belongings. Wright's fiancée almost left her engagement ring in her coat, which also was searched.

"Somebody just made the rounds," Wright said. "Fortunately it worked out for us because we're all poor, but it's still aggravating."

Wright, an English graduate student and teaching assistant in Integrative Studies in Arts & Humanities, and his friends aren't alone. In 2002, 21 larcenies from lockers were reported on campus, but already in the first three weeks of 2003, more than 10 have occurred, surpassing the eight that happened in all of 2001.

MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said most of the locker larcenies are from MSU's three IM buildings.

Those numbers, combined with thefts similar to Wright's experience, which weren't classified as locker larcenies, have officials concerned.

Taylor thinks the increase from 2001 and 2002 shows more people are reporting the thefts.

But the rash of thefts have university and police officials calling for athletes to keep a closer eye on their belongings and those around them.

They also say IM Sports-West has been hit more severely than IM Sports-East because the facility has more entrances and events.

"It seems like we've had more this semester than last semester," McGlothian-Taylor said. "A lot of them are crimes of opportunity, such as where a bag is sitting outside of a court making property easily accessible to criminals."

Most of this semester's incidents have happened when an athlete puts possessions in a locker and returns to find their property missing or searched. Even though some thefts are occurring when people aren't securing lockers, some have returned to find their locked locker broken into.

"I would tell people to give them an extra tug and make sure they are actually secure," Taylor said.

Facility administrators started posting student monitors at facility entrances five years ago, and Sally Belloli, assistant director of Intramural Sports and Recreation Services, said they have cut down on thefts - until recently.

She said the recent run of thefts could be because monitors are just getting into their semester schedules.

"For the last couple weeks we've had more thefts than we usually do," she said. "The thefts really bother me."

When monitors were originally implemented into the facilities' security, Belloli said officials found nonstudents were doing most of the stealing.

People not associated with the university aren't able to use the facility unless they are alumni and purchase an IM alumni ID. In order to use the facilities in any of the three buildings, participants need to be current students, faculty, staff, partners or spouses, Belloli said.

IM Sports-West has to balance accommodating a busier schedule than the other facilities. The building is the only IM building to house a pool, which brings more events.

Athletes can rent locks for lockers or they can bring their own to secure their belongings, but Belloli recommends those using facility courts, such as racquetball, keep their property inside with them.

"It's harder for us to be as strict with our checks here because we have all the extraneous people coming in," she said. "There are so many events going on."