Crime Alerts

#2005-5

March 31, 2005

Thefts and Burglaries in West Wing

Since January 22 nd, five burglaries were reported in West Wing. In three cases, student rooms were hit – on the 3 rd & 4 th floors – while in the other two, university property was stolen from the 109 Cluster. The first burglary occurred in a 4 th floor room between 10:30pm on Jan. 22 nd and 2:00am on Jan. 23 rd. The other four crimes occurred over a 9-day period, from Mar. 20-29, 2005, and generally between 1:00pm – 7:00 am. Students’ property stolen included Ipods, cell phone chargers, towers, and laptops, with a total loss value to the victims of over $7,500. In one of the student room burglaries, the victim was only away from his room for 50 minutes when someone entered and stole his IBM ThinkPad. University property stolen from the cluster included 2 Dell flat screen monitors and five Dell 19” monitors, with an estimated loss value of approximately $3,500. That’s $11,000 of property gone, not to mention invaluable, irreplaceable files, term papers, class projects, etc., that might’ve been on those laptops.

While you should have a feeling of safety within your residence hall, these felonies illustrate that an increased level of caution and awareness of your environment and who occupies it is warranted. Most frustrating to University Police was the common contributing factor in all 3 burglaries from students’ rooms – namely, the rooms had been left unsecured/unlocked – i.e., “wide open” – by the residents and/or the door lock had been “double-dipped”. Both indicate an unacceptably lackadaisical, careless attitude about the safety of one’s person and property.

While University Police do their best to patrol all 125 acres of the main campus to prevent crimes from occurring, they do not patrol residence halls out of respect for your privacy. Consequently, every student has an obligation to participate in his/her own security and the safety of expensive and costly to replace property. Speak with your suite mates, roommates, fellow floor residents, and ask them to practice the following measures to prevent their rooms and their cluster from being invaded by student-thieves who are roaming around West Wing to commit "crimes of opportunity." Let’s face it – these crimes are classic examples of “internal thefts,” as we clearly don’t have outsiders invading West Wing, walking in off Margaret Morrison Street. The criminals are most likely students living right among you every day!

Don’t forget – when the university has computer equipment stolen, guess who “pays” for its replacement in the end through increased tuition, computing fees, and housing rates? YOU.

Crime Prevention Tips

• While a residence hall is your "home away from home" and you want to treat it like your house or apartment back home, it's better to treat it - and every room within it - like a hotel/motel. Surely no CMU student staying in a strange city ever leaves his hotel/motel room unlocked when he leaves. KEEP YOUR ROOM DOORS LOCKED AT ALL TIMES!! AND FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, STOP “DOUBLE-DIPPING”!!!!!!!!!!!
• Register your laptops and expensive electronic equipment with University Police, so that if they are stolen, police can return them to you if recovered or an arrest is later made. Go to www.cmu.edu/police/bike.htm and scroll down to “Laptop Registration” for more details.