Henle robberies blamed on broken door

Thieves broke into two Henle apartments early Wednesday morning, stealing three laptops and a wallet, according to students in the apartments.

Residents of Henle 87 and 90 said the thieves were likely able to enter the building because the door to the apartment complex had been broken for several days and would not close. The door was fixed by Wednesday afternoon.

Residents in both apartments believe their doors were unlocked at the time of the robberies.

Henle 87 resident Amanda Wong (MSB ’08) said the robbery occurred sometime between 3:30 and 7:30 a.m., while the residents were asleep. A laptop on their coffee table was stolen, along with a wallet on a desk—next to another laptop that wasn’t stolen.

“Maybe it was really dark, and my laptop is black. Jen [Wu]’s [stolen] laptop is a bright, shiny thing,” Kristine Liwag (MSB ’08) said.

Liwag’s wallet was stolen, along with her GOCard and apartment key. She said she called Facilities to have the door fixed and the lock to her apartment changed, which they did four or five hours later.

“[A University worker initially] said it would take 24 hours for that request to be processed,” Liwag said. “I told them this was a security problem, and she said, ‘We always deal with safety emergencies. We’ll deal with this when we can.’”

Henle residents said that several students had called Facilities to ask for the door to be fixed for several days, with no success. A Residence Life worker filed a work request for the broken door that called the incident a security threat before the robberies occurred, Josh Tecchio (COL ’08), whose laptop was one of two stolen from Henle 90, said.

Housing Operations Director Heather Malneritch told students in an e-mail that three screws on the building door mechanism had been found missing and were replaced by locksmiths last Friday. The same incident occurred twice more that Sunday, and was repaired both times.

Department of Public Safety officers would not comment on the incident. University officials were unavailable for comment as of press time.

Also stolen from the apartment was a shopping bag, which Wong believes was used to carry out the stolen items.

-Additional reporting by Daniel Newman, Will Sommer and Laura Thompson