I think I saw a woman shoplift from our friendly Drake Walgreens this morning. She was small and old, with a long green coat on. She followed me out of the store with nothing in her hands and as I got in my car, she was struggling with something between her legs. She hobbled into the passenger seat of a car and sped off.

It was funny for a minute, seeing this old woman – someone’s grandmother, maybe – stealing.

But as I drove off, I wondered how often things like that happen in Manhattan, Kan., in Greencastle, Ind., in Oxford, Ohio.

I’m writing this from Smokey Row, a spankin’ new coffee shop and soda fountain at 19th and Cottage Grove. It opened at the beginning of October. It’s adorable: booths and high-top tables, wood floors, exposed duct work above, 8-foot windows (with brand-new awnings!) around the façade. Around me sit families with small children, business associates lunching, groups of women having midday meetings and students on their Macs.

In the 8-foot window closest to me, there’s already a crack in the glass. It splinters and is almost eight inches long. Though employees I asked didn’t know the origin, I can tell you what didn’t cause it: It wasn’t the elbow of a customer. It wasn’t a laptop doing some unintentional damage.

As students, we have a unique opportunity when we attend Drake. It’s the reason many of us are drawn to this school in the first place: a mid-sized university nestled in neighborhoods; a hop, skip and a jump from both the culture of downtown and the comfort of West Des Moines suburbia.

As added perks, we now have a Starbucks conveniently located right below West Village (worst and best idea ever?) and McDonald’s is strategically located across from the freshmen dorms.

So is Peggy’s.

The Library is just a stumble away from 34th Street. Dublin and West End are a little farther – they have to be sought out – but what’s a short walk or bus ride?

Have you ever gone to any of those places and seen people you don’t recognize? People that, heaven forbid, don’t look like Bulldogs? That’s because, as Drake students, we have a unique opportunity: Just as Des Moines has opened its arms to us for four or six years, so too, has Drake opened its arms to Des Moines.

The walls of what we see as “our” Walgreens, “our” coffee shops, “our” bars? They’re not invincible. They’re not theft-proof or bulletproof. They’re not stranger-proof. We can’t expect them to be. We don’t live in the bubble of a college town. We don’t live in Manhattan, Greencastle or Oxford. We live in the diverse and versatile city of Des Moines. It’s a real city with real people – people who aren’t students. Have you ever been to The Library on a Thursday night? Des Moines residents love that bar as much as students do.

We are sharing a city and a neighborhood. We’re sharing it with good people and we’re sharing it with bad people. We are living in a city with people who want to coexist with us, and we’re living in a city with people who want to exploit us.

Our haunts aren’t invincible, and neither are we. I hope, as a student body, we recognize that as a result of the events of the past weekend. Scary things happen, they can hit close to home, and they happen every year, whether or not they’re reported. All we can do is be accountable for our friends and ourselves. Watch out for your peers and, please, and don’t assume the security and protection we feel in our dorms and in the heart of campus follow us around on the weekends. The don’t and they can’t.