Students prime targets of break-ins

After a reported 43 burglaries between the beginning of December and mid-January, some GCSU students are experiencing first hand the reality of break-ins. Students certainly aren’t the only targets to be burglarized, but they seem to be easy marks when they leave town.

“We always have Thanksgiving break, spring break and Christmas break. College kids leave and houses get broken into,” said Captain Dray Swicord of the Milledgeville Police Department. “It’s not just a college problem. This is from the north side of the city limits, south side of city limits, east and west.”

Electronics items that can fit into a backpack are what’s stolen most often, according to Milledgeville police.

“Electronics have made it easy for people to prey on people. Just to go in and grab this laptop and back out and sell it for 100 bucks on the street,” Swicord said. “It’s been laptops, TVs and gaming systems. They’re just grabbing things that they know that they can get rid of.”

To help find stolen possessions, the police have an anonymous tip line. Some students still don’t feel their possessions will likely get returned.

“Nothing has been recovered, and I am not hopeful anything will be,” said senior international business major Rob Glaze.

Glaze and his roommates were robbed around New Year’s Day and had several electronics items stolen, including a desktop computer, laptop and video game systems. Glaze said he is certain his doors were locked, but believes that the thieves entered though an unsecured window.

Senior theater major Bren Thomas and his roommates also fell victim to burglars. The roommates lost a TV, an estimated $20 in change and a DVD.

victim to burglars. The roommates lost a TV, an estimated $20 in change and a DVD.

“I feel like they took our TV so they could pawn it, and they took change. That’s it,” Thomas said.

Milledgeville police have noticed an increase in break-ins and thefts over the past year. These crimes have been non-violent and nearly all committed when the resident was not at home. The break-ins have affected all types of residents in the city.

Although police have no verifiable data on how many victims were college students, it has disclosed that one-third of the break-ins were at commercial locations and even the mayor of Milledgeville was not spared.

“Our mayor – he lives in Carrington Woods – his house got broken into. These guys stole one of his rings, broke into another house over here off Jefferson Street, and those kids got caught,” Swicord said. “The ring on that guy’s hand was from the mayor’s house.”

Swicord said he’s not necessarily optimistic about the number of burglaries going down in the coming months.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better in my opinion. I think we all as citizens, or people who go to school here, should be more proactive in trying to deter stuff like this,” Swicord said. “When you leave, if you think you’re going to be broken into take your laptop, put it in your trunk.”

Checking all door and window locks is also a step to take when leaving. Swicord suggests recording serial numbers of valuable electronic items and installing software on computers that can allow the owner to track the location of it in the event that it is stolen. Several laptops have been recovered already using software designed to track it if stolen.

Other suggestions might be for students to set up a light on a timer inside their residence or to tell neighbors when they are leaving and for how long. Swicord also asks everyone in the community to be more observant and to not be afraid to report suspicious activities to the police.

“We know the college is here to stay, and we want them to stay,” Swicord said. “We want them to be safe, and we want to do our best to reassure parents when they send their kids to school.”

Posted by Drake Simons on Jan 29 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry