Students suffer from burglary, crime trend

Since the beginning of the semester, 72 burglaries have been reported to the Milledgeville Police Department, according to their records. Three burglaries have been reported on campus, according to Public Safety.

“Many (burglaries) happen when students get back into town because many are affluent and bring things such as laptops, PlayStations and Xboxes when they return,” said Michael Baker, a detective for GCSU Department of Public Safety.

Baker said there are actions students can take that would greatly help in the prevention of burglaries.

“I stress locking stuff up, don’t leave anything abandoned,” Baker said.

Another way to prevent burglaries is to report anything that seems suspicious.

“We would rather come check it out and it not be anything than to not come and it actually be something,” Baker said.

Senior sociology major James McConnell has had his house broken into once, however another suspicious incident went unreported.

“We were playing cards one night and two kids walked in off the street and were noticeably scoping out the house,” McConnell said.

Meghan Hewitt, a senior business management major, has had her house broken into twice.

“The first time was the only time that anything was stolen, but the second time it looked like they may have just lived here for a couple of days.”

Hewitt reported both crimes committed on her house.

When students report these crimes, the police can spot trends. As a result they can do things to prevent burglaries from happening. They can increase patrol over areas that are more heavily hit by crimes. Street lights can also be put up to prevent crimes from happening.

Baker mentioned one place where crimes have been reported is McIntosh. He also mentioned the houses around Irwin Street as targets for burglars.

Public Safety also provides a registering service for students. Students can bring their valuable goods to the Public Safety office or register the products online with Public Safety. They can register the serial numbers for the goods in case anything were to happen.

Posted by Chaz Lawson on Nov 5 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.