At least 17 vehicles were broken into and five others stolen from the Oregon State University campus and surrounding area early Wednesday.

The break-ins happened at parking lots across the campus, including three residence halls, an academic building and the parking structure.

Sgt. Jeff Lanz of the Oregon State Police said his office started getting calls about the break-ins and thefts Wednesday morning. He estimated the events happened between 3:30 a.m. and daybreak on Wednesday.

"I definitely think it was all the same group of people," he said.

Two Honda Civics were reported stolen from campus; one from the parking garage on Southwest 26th Street and the other from the Crop Science Building parking lot at Southwest 30th Street and Campus Way.

One of the Civics' owners told investigators that she had just finished packing the car with all of her belongings before it was stolen.

Three vehicles, including two Honda Civics, were stolen from the 900 block of Southwest 15th Street. The Corvallis Police Department recovered one vehicle at a different location on 15th Street.

Four vehicles parked at the Crop Sciences Building were found with broken windows and property taken. Vehicles were also broken into at Sackett Hall, Wilson Hall and the Gem Building at Northwest Kings Boulevard and Monroe Street.

Employees from OSU Parking Services found three vehicles in the parking structure that had their windows broken out. While OSP officers were investigating at the scene, they noticed a vehicle taking up two spaces, with skid marks leading to where it was parked. The vehicle was one of the three reported stolen from Southwest 15th Street.

Lanz is hoping more stolen property will be recovered.

"We got some good fingerprints on a few of the cars, they've been sent to a lab," he said.

Some victims told police they remembered hearing car alarms going off, but they didn't think it was their car.

"People are 100 percent immune to car alarms," Lanz said. "We didn't get one report of car alarms going off."

Lt. Dave Henslee of the Corvallis Police Department said drivers should take necessary measures to prevent break-ins, such as hiding valuables out of sight.

"Some of these are crimes of opportunity, because they see something in the car they want," he said, adding that parking near street lights and reporting suspicious activity also are good deterrents.

Lanz urged drivers not to leave electronic devices in vehicles. In some of the break-ins, he said, windows were smashed but nothing was taken. The thieves seemed interested mostly in items that could be easily moved, such as GPS devices and iPods.

Randy Jones Chevrolet also was burglarized on Wednesday. Computer equipment, a pickup truck and keys to several vehicles were taken. The pickup was located nearby along with nearly all the keys. It is unknown whether the business, at 1755 Northwest Ninth St., was targeted by the same perpetrators of the OSU break-ins.