The day before Brian Erickson’s first day of school this year, he joked around with his parents about his sister taking his laptop lock. He said to them, “Well, I hope my laptop gets stolen.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 25, Erickson ’08 left his Lantern Point residence, the Koolhouse, to attend class and go to Stop ‘ Shop – a normal afternoon.
However, at 2:50 p.m., when he returned home, he realized his laptop, external hard drive and iPod had been stolen from his room.
“I thought someone was playing a joke on me,” said Erickson. He soon realized his housemate, Blane Cordes ’08 was also missing his laptop.
The incident was reported immediately to the Fairfield Police and is currently under investigation, but there are no leads, according to Fairfield Police Capt. Gary MacNamara.
Cordes was the last person to leave the house that day, while another housemate, Rob Zwillich ’08, was asleep in his bedroom.
“The guy got so lucky; [Brian] was at the supermarket, Rob was taking a nap,” said Cordes. “I got home at 2:25 p.m. I missed him by like 20 minutes.”
Since the front door and lock are old, Erickson said the door must be pulled tightly in order for it to lock.
“Either the front door didn’t click all the way or the backdoor was open, but that is highly unlikely,” he said. “[The Point] is such an easy target, anyone can see the empty parking lots and few people are around.”
Erickson had left his instant messenger account active when he went to class; a friend from home kept their conversation box open all day. He said that at 2:11 p.m. the burglar put up an away message and signed off at 2:17 p.m.
Allison Abreu ’08, who was on her way to the beach around 2:30 p.m. that same day, paused for a moment in the kitchen of her beach house, 739 Fairfield Beach Road, and made eye contact with a “young, Hispanic male, wearing gym shorts, a light gray, cut-off T-shirt and sneakers.” She said he was carrying two laptop cases and walking briskly across her porch.
“He saw me looking through the window, then hopped the fence – just climbed over it. Then, I thought that looked suspicious,” said Abreu. “When he saw me, it looked like he was doing something wrong, so I took notice.”
Christina Stoddard ’08 encountered a man with the same description earlier that day. She said he knocked on her door and then said he was looking for someone else at a different Lantern Point address.
Abreu and Stoddard both reported these sightings to the police.
Detectives are trying to connect the IP address to Erickson’s screen name, which was signed on at 3:23 p.m at the location of the suspected burglar.
MacNamara said people that commit one burglary often commit others. The police encourage all students to report suspicious individuals and recognize that their community is accessible to anyone.
MacNamara said an incident of attempted burglary at 709 Fairfield Beach Road was reported to the police a few weeks earlier.
On Sept. 16, Megan Widmer ’08, was downstairs alone in her house, the Red Barn, when she heard a noise at the window.
“I was on the futon in front of the window and heard something right outside, so I peeked through the shades and he was like five inches from my face, but on the other side of the glass,” said Widmer.
Widmer said few students lock their doors and windows at the beginning of the year, but she now realizes that the Point and Forgotten Path are easy targets for burglary.
Duane Melzer, off-campus coordinator, emphasized the importance of locking beach house doors and taking notice of suspicious activity.
The Lantern Point security guards are only on duty Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 8 p.m. until around 3 a.m., so it is the students’ responsibility to lock their houses.
“Oftentimes, I pass by houses that appear to be wide open and unsecured,” Melzer said. “Students need to secure their houses and make sure all the windows and doors lock. If not, then they need to take care of this or contact the landlord immediately to remedy the situation.”
The residents of the Koolhouse informed their landlord of the faulty lock on the front door weeks before the burglary occurred. Their landlord has yet to fix it, Erickson said.
“We are one of the more careful houses with locking our doors. We always lock the backdoor because we don’t have a key,” said Erickson.
Erickson, who founded an online business last year, saved all the confidential files and information on his laptop and external hard drive. He said his student visa was also on the computer.
Lauren Cimpl ’08, who lives just off the Point, said she and her roommates try to keep their house as safe as possible.
“We could probably take more precautions,” she said. “But we have been super conscious of locking our doors at night; we make sure to shut our windows too.”
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