With all the parking that the Sacramento State campus offers to students, faculty and staff, it is no wonder that vehicles can be hard to locate once in a while.

According to the media logs from the University Police Department, 42 people needed assistance in locating their car last fall.

Cpl. Scott Christian said the calls to help locate a car can vary from person to person and the dispatch center receives these calls often.

“Typically, these type of calls pick up early in the fall semester, around mid-terms, and finals,” Christian said. “Most of the time, the reporting party is a student, but occasionally, it’s a campus visitor. It depends on the time of the year, as we have more visitors in summer.”

Sac State freshman Mary-Ann Biag said cars are misplaced because people do not pay attention to where they park.

“Sometimes you forget when you’re late for class, so it kind of slips your mind when you don’t think about it.”

The University Police media logs reports that out of the 42 people looking for their car, 20 of those vehicles were located inside Parking Structure III.

Biag said she encountered the same problem when she parked there because she was looking in the wrong floor. Biag said it took her about ten minutes to look for her car, which was located one level up.

“It was a bigger parking structure than the rest,” Biag said. “The other ones are much smaller and it kind of looks the same. (The third parking structure) kind of looks different for some reason.”

Ben Olivo, a Sac State master’s student in physical therapy, said he tends to forget where he parks his car and tries to remember where it is.

Olivo said it took him about 20 minutes to find his 2000 Saber Buick and at one point, thought it was stolen.

“I was like ‘Who would want to steal my car? Was it an old grandma?’” Olivo said. “I’m thinking, ‘Who would want to take that? Do they drive really slow?’”

University Police helps students, staff and instructors find their cars to make sure it is does not lead to more serious issues, Christian said.

“In regards to assisting the campus community in finding missing or lost vehicles, it is a service we provide to the community,” Christian said. “In some cases, it’s also the preliminary investigation for a stolen vehicle.”

Camille Anglo can be reached at [email protected].