When LSA sophomore Alex Sutton came home after Thanksgiving Break to find thieves had broken into his house on the 800 block of East Ann Street, he realized it would be a long night.
- Sarah Royce
Thieves had kicked in his locked bedroom door and stolen his desktop computer.
To finish his homework for Monday, Sutton worked on a computer in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library until the early hours of the morning. He said the Ann Arbor Police Department told him and his housemates, who lost thousands of dollars in electronics, that it was unlikely they’d ever see their belongings again.
The theft at Sutton’s house was part of a string of robberies and break-ins during the Thanksgiving weekend, when thieves stole televisions, DVD players, computers, a microwave and other valuables. The Ann Arbor News reported yesterday that the holiday robbers nabbed more than $20,000 in electronics and jewelry from 10 residences in the city. Ann Arbor police officers said they made one arrest related to the break-ins.
According to the AAPD, there was no significant spike in the number of burglaries compared to past Thanksgiving weekends.
LSA senior Andy Zasuwa, who lives on the 400 block of East Kingsley Street, has a roommate who lost a computer monitor, an iPod, a speaker and a digital camera. He blamed the break-ins on a lack of police patrols.
“(The problem is the) police presence,” he said. “There’s none of it. It’s horrible.”
Sutton’s housemate, Kinesiology sophomore David Woodside, said he felt there was nothing he could do to prevent the larceny and that the housemates had locked all their doors before leaving for break.
“This house has a history of (robberies),” Sutton added. “The people before us said it was broken into three times.”
Housemate Kenny Altenburg, an LSA sophomore, said that while they are gone during Christmas Break, they will probably ask their neighbor to keep an eye on the house. The AAPD told the housemates that the thieves probably entered through an unlocked window. The residents said they locked all but two windows, both of which did not have locks.
LSA senior Dan Moranville and LSA senior Greg Lavigne said there were at least six people in the Phi Beta Alpha fraternity house on the 1400 block of Washtenaw Avenue when it was robbed Sunday. Some of the residents of the house were awake until 3 a.m. But when Lavigne came downstairs at 10 a.m., the house’s microwave, a PlayStation and the living-room television were gone.
There was no evidence of forced entry, and members of the fraternity plan to change all of the locks, Lavigne said, adding that the crime appeared to be well-planned and that he thinks the perpetrator was someone who had been to their house before.
While the victims said they do not feel threatened or less safe than before the break-ins, they advised other students to lock all windows and doors before leaving.
Daily News Editor Michael Kan contributed to this report