A spate of crimes struck Georgetown in the period during and around Thanksgiving, with one student being held-up at gunpoint last week and robberies of a Copley suite and four Henle apartments over the past ten days.
A graduate student reported that at 6:00 p.m. last Friday on the 3600 block of N. Street N.W., he was approached by three African-American men. One held a gun to his forehead, while the other two took his laptop, wallet and keys.
DPS is working with the Metropolitan Police Department to locate the suspects, according to Associate Director of the Department of Public Safety Doris Bey.
Just before Thanksgiving break last Tuesday, November 20th, two rooms in a Copley suite were burglarized.
Diedrick Minkhorst (MSB ‘10) came back to his room to find his laptop, television, speakers, X-Box and its games gone from his room. A television, laptop, iPod, watch and hat were also stolen from the suite’s adjoining room.
On the day of the burglary, one of Minkhorst’s friends said that a large, middle-aged man stuck his head in the door and asked if a person named “Richard” was there. Minkhorst thinks that this might be the person who stole his belongings, after his roommate accidentally left the door open. Either that, Minkhorst said, or the burglar somehow obtained a key to his room.
“They had some sort of information—more than the average person,” Minkhorst said. The burglar also stole Minkhorst’s roommate’s suitcase and backpack in order to carry the items out.
Copley is not as secure as it should be, Minkhorst said.
“It’s really easy to get into Copley.” He explained that because “there is one entrance, but there are four or five exits,” a person could wait outside of an exit for someone to leave the dorm and be able to enter without a Go-card.
This past Tuesday evening four Henle apartments were robbed between 7:30 and 11:00 p.m.
At around 7:30 p.m., two students found that two Apple laptops, two cell phones, an iPod, a book and cash had been stolen from their apartment. Having left her apartment for five hours, another Henle resident came back at 8:00 p.m. to find her laptop gone.
A few hours later, three residents reported just before 10:00 p.m. that three iPods, one Dell laptop, one Canon camera and a pair of sunglasses were missing—one of the residents also said that a stranger came into the his apartment and asked for a different roommate who wasn’t there at the time.
Around 11:00 p.m., Andrew Britt (COL ’08) and C.J. Overly (MSB ’08), of Henle 71, found that an X-Box, 20 games and two controllers—about $1700 worth of goods—had been stolen. Overly said that he and Britt had been on the second floor when their belongings were taken from the ground floor.
Britt said that the front doors to each set of apartments are easy to force open because they don’t fit the doorframe. When facilities came to fix their oven (which is still broken), Britt and his roommates asked maintenance to fix their door, and they refused.
“You can just pull [the door] and it opens,” Daniel Kerames (MSB ’08), one of Britt’s roommates, said. “That’s how it is on every single door in this entire building.”
Bey said that the rate of theft on campus does not increase during holiday breaks, but does during the transition into these breaks.
After the most recent robberies in Henle, the Student Safety Advisory Board sent out an e-mail last night reminding students to be particularly wary this time of year.
“Historic trends show spikes in crime during the holiday season,” the e-mail read, “so we would like to remind you to be extra vigilant over the next few weeks.”
The e-mail emphasized the importance of students locking their doors.
“We’re thinking that the school should do a little more than tell us to close our doors.” Jorge Perez (MSB ’08), a third resident in Henle 71, said.
