 "Photo: Jacqueline Lambert")
 "Photo: Jacqueline Lambert")
 "Photo: Jacqueline Lambert")
Over 50 of 300 residents of Campus Corner Apartments (CCA) attended a safety meeting on April 6, 2010 to discuss the recent burglaries that have happened.
During spring break, while most of the student population and faculty members were focused on a little rest and relaxation for finals, the Safety officers and residents of CCA had bigger things to worry about. In the past few weeks four apartments were entered with the intent of stealing highly valued items such as laptops, televisions, Xbox's, wallets, along with other personal items.
The management team of CCA along with safety have held two successful meetings where residents could express their concern and ask questions about what has been going on with the robberies. Fred Creek, head of safety answered questions from the audience and assured the worried residents that safety is doing all it can to reduce the risk of more robberies, which have already caused students to lose approximately $7,000 to $8,000 worth of electronics and other miscellaneous items.
These robberies were not forced entry. The person simply opens the front door and proceeds to take items from the living room, after which they will move to the bedrooms where they will force the doors open. One robbery happened while residents were actually inside of their bedrooms. Locking your door even when you are downstairs or your roommates are home is the key to being safe in your house.
Auburn Police officer Stephen B. Bourdage, Jr. also attended the meeting. This was the first time he had heard of the incidents and also agreed with Creek and management that locking the door was the most important thing to do. Thieves look for "opportunity, risk, reward, and effort", and all of the factors beneficial to thieves are clearly present in CCA: unlocked doors (opportunity and effort), the absence of camera's (risk), and the valuable items students posses (reward).
Kiwook Kwon, an international student who lives at CCA, was one of the victims of the burglaries. Kwon's cell phone and MP3 player were taken from his apartment. He says that the meetings will help and he hopes that no more robberies occur but he still doesn't feel safe.
Jeffrey, who is also a CCA resident, potentially stopped a theft from occurring in his own apartment. "He came into my apartment and yelled ‘Anyone here', I thought it was security and I said ‘can I help you?' and he walked out saying he had the wrong apartment". The brazen thieves strike during the day; the most recent break in was between 12:30-1:30 PM. There are no direct leads so the best thing residents can do to protect themselves is be aware.
As Creek said at the end of the meeting, "An aware community is a safe community".
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