Imagine walking to your car on a frigid winter night and finding that you can’t get to your destination. Why can’t you get to your destination? Because your license plate was stolen and you can’t drive without a license plate.

Now, you have to purchase a brand new license plate, which can cost hundreds of dollars, and your car can’t move unless you want a ticket.

If you’re wondering where I would get such a bizarre scenario, I’m talking about the recent string of license plate thefts that have been reported in the Public Safety blotter.

What exactly does someone gain by stealing a license plate? I guess it is pretty sweet for about a week when people see that you have an out-of-state license plate until you get caught during that random fire drill. Trust me: it’s not worth it.

Defacing other people’s property is not only a buzz kill. It also costs people a lot of money.

It’s like the people who decide that cleaning up after themselves is not an option. They love to leave their trash all over the Italian Kitchen or the Pit, expecting someone to clean up after them.

While we’re at it, how about the people who think defacing school property is actually funny?

I must admit that once I realized that someone wrote “Mike Jones” in the men’s bathrooms all across campus, I laughed, but it only lasted for about a minute.

I realized that someone has to clean that up, and by trying to be funny, you just made someone’s job a little more difficult.

Destroying the WildCard machines at the entrances of buildings not only costs the University hundreds of dollars, but it is pain for all of the people trying to enter the building. People think it will let everyone in, but actually no one can enter.

I know that the Quad is supposed to be “so college,” but tearing the emergency phones out of the walls is, in fact, only hurting your fellow Villanovans.

People often wonder where all the tuition money is going, but a good portion of it actually goes to replacing all the damaged property that people have destroyed because they think it is funny.

No one is benefiting from your foolishness, and even you are losing out in the end.

We often don’t realize that our actions affect other people. People actually enjoy using various University facilities and appreciate the fact that they are allowed to have a car on campus.

But, when you purposely destroy someone else’s property or even community property, you are hurting a lot of people.

So, the next time you think that having someone’s license plate on your wall is really cool, think about how many people you are actually affecting.