Fairfield is under security alert due to the reported thefts of five labtops and one audio system that were stolen from dorm rooms over Easter Break, according to Mike Lauzon, assistant director of Security.
In an attempt to warn students and to also keep them on the look out, fliers have been posted in the campus center and elsewhere to notify students of the recent string of burglaries.
On April 1 alone, four laptops were taken from the first and second floors of Loyola. At 6:37 p.m. April 1, two laptops were taken from an unlocked room on the first floor. An hour later, at 7:30 p.m., two others were taken from a locked room on the second floor of Loyola. There was, however, no sign of forced entry. Both of these cases are still under investigation and may be linked to each other.
“It’s under investigation and we’re looking into several leads,” said Lauzon. “A few people are being interviewed because through the card system, we can tell who has been in and out of the dorm during those given times.”
He would not say whether or not these people are students or, even more so, if he believes the robbers to be Fairfield University residents.
Students hope not. Erik Lowe ’02, lived in a townhouse last year and neither he nor his housemates locked the door when they were not home.
“You don’t think something like that could happen,” said Lowe. “You think of yourself as being in a community and you can trust the people who you live with and near.”
Angela DiMartino, a junior, never leaves her room without locking her door first. “I always lock my door because I don’t want anything stolen,” said DiMartino. “Anyone who doesn’t puts themselves at a great risk of something being stolen.”
In one case, however, the student was actually in the room while his computer was stolen. On April 3, a student came home at 2:30 a.m. and his laptop was taken at 8:00 a.m., while he was sleeping in his Gonzaga dorm room. He had left the door unlocked for his roommate and woke up to a missing computer.
Similarly, Priscilla Connors ’03, woke up in the middle of the night this past September to the sound of someone moving in her room in Kostka. “I woke up and saw somebody in my room, but I thought it was just my roommate,” said Connors. “I thought nothing of it and went back to bed. But when I got up the next morning, I realized that my plugs for the computer were unplugged and it wouldn’t turn on properly.”
Connors was lucky considering that in this semester alone there have been nine reported thefts. In 2001, there were 18 and in 2000, there was a whopping 47 burglaries, the majority of which were performed by one man.
“We caught the guy last year who was stealing from the campus center,” said Lauzon. “He was a Sodexho worker in Barone and had a girlfriend who lived in the dorms. She would let him in and he would steal from the residence halls. He was responsible for most of those thefts. It goes to show how just one person can reek havoc here.”
Lauzon’s advice: keep your doors locked.
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