A break-in occurred over the Columbus Day holiday on the first floor of Canisius Hall, with laptops and cash the primary items reported as stolen.
A professor first notified Public Safety of the robbery, according to Frank Ficko, the associate director of the Department of Public Safety. Items that were taken include four laptops, an undetermined amount of cash, and an external drive. The rooms that were broken into were the suites and offices of various faculty and administration on the first floor of the building.
The rooms were broken into using a tool, most likely a screwdriver or a crowbar. Laptops were believed to have been the targets of the break-in, as various other screens and monitors were left untouched.
The incident is believed to have taken place anywhere between Friday evening and 4 p.m. on Monday, October 10, when the robberies were reported. According to Ficko, Canisius Hall was open on Monday for a routine academic schedule because a few classes were scheduled to make up for lost time due to Hurricane Irene. The building is also regularly used by outside groups and organizations over the weekends.
Signs on the doors of academic buildings and a Public Safety Alert e-mail notified students of the situation. Those students who remained on campus for the long weekend were especially shocked to hear of the incident. Christine Villa ’14 said, “I was surprised to hear of the break-in. I would hope that it wasn’t a member of our own community, because why would they do that to the school?”
Due to the holiday weekend, there were fewer students on campus than usual. Only the few make-up classes and regularly scheduled groups had access to Canisius, which is also protected by a necessary swipe-in authorization for the hours when the building is not generally in use.
A majority of the academic buildings are used for different reasons on the weekends, but Ficko hopes that some future restrictions to gaining access to these buildings may be implemented to avoid more thefts.
Ficko said he is not at liberty to discuss details of the investigation as it is still ongoing, but encourages students and members of the community to report suspicious behavior. He says that Public Safety officers count on the Fairfield community to provide extra eyes and ears around campus to avoid future incidents.
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