Proceed with caution when driving or parking in a TCU parking lot. 

In August and September combined, there were 10 hit-and-run accidents in university parking lots, according to the TCU Police Daily Crime and Fire Log.

This number is the highest two-month total in more than a year, according to the crime log.

Students could be charged with a hit and run and arrested if they do not take responsibility for the damage, Sgt. Kelly Ham said.

“It’s not a good idea,” Ham said. “You can be arrested. We will find out who you are.”

Samantha Calimbahin, a junior journalism major, has experience with hit-and-run accidents after someone damaged her car in August without leaving a note.

Calimbahin said she parked her car in the commuter lot across from Smith Hall while she was in class. When she came back, there was a large dent in her rear bumper.

“To have my car hit, it’s like the big climax of everything that had happened that day,” she said. “It was just really disappointing and frustrating.”

Steven Garcia, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, saw the accident from two cars away and left Calimbahin a note with the suspect’s license plate. He said the suspect moved his car to a different spot after the accident.

“He walked away, so I felt like if I didn’t do something about it, then it would be bad karma,” Garcia said.

Calimbahin said she would not have been able to trace the license plate number and get her car repaired without Garcia’s assistance.

“I’m really, really grateful that there was a Good Samaritan there and that he helped me out a lot,” she said.

Garcia said he decided to be a nice guy when the suspect left the scene of the accident without leaving a note.

“If it was my car, then I would like someone to say something,” he said.

Most hit-and-run accidents that happen in university parking lots do not get solved the same way, though. 

Out of the 29 hit-and-run accidents from October 2012 through September 2013, only two cases have been cleared and one is pending, according to the crime log.