Burglaries serve as reminder of security problems

Students are being asked to take responsibility for the safety of their belongings after a man was arrested in connection with a string of recent burglaries in North Campus dorms earlier this month.

University Police arrested Marques Avery Buford, a non-student, on Nov. 12 for stealing several laptops and other electronics from unlocked rooms in North Campus dorms. Resident Life officials reminded students to lock their doors and not allow others to follow them into dorm buildings, said Amy Martin, associate director of North Campus for the Department of Resident Life. Crime aside, Martin said, students should take these precautions all the time.

On Nov. 17, for example, some property was stolen from an unsecured room in Elkton Hall, according to University Police's incident log.

Thefts in North Campus dorms account for 2 percent of all incidents in dorms across the campus, she said, noting there were 20 theft cases around North Campus in fall 2008, 10 in spring 2009 and two this semester until the string of burglaries. The recent uptick in incidents went down dramatically after the arrest was made, she said.

But university officials encourage students to report strangers they find in their dorms and always lock their doors. Police didn't find any signs of forced entry into any of the rooms in the burglary cases, University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said.

"Students should always lock their doors whenever they leave, even if they are going to use the restroom," Dillon wrote in an e-mail. "If they see people they do not recognize wandering the halls, they can either confront the person if they feel comfortable doing so or call our agency to report a suspicious person."

Students should also be more conscious when letting others follow them into the building in a practice known as "tailgating," Dillon and Martin said.

Police investigations have found that suspects typically gain entry into dorm buildings that otherwise require a student ID card to enter by tailgating behind students into the building and then into the elevator, Dillon said. They then wander hallways and check doors until they find a room that is open and unoccupied.

"It's kind of like your neighborhood watch," Martin said. "You need to watch out for each other and think, ‘Who is that coming in behind me?'"

Some students said they think tailgating is an issue but said they don't know what they can do to prevent it.

"It's kind of hard," freshman biology major Jenny Lannon said. "If you open the door, you're not going to close it in front of someone who is standing right there. It wouldn't be a problem if people just locked their doors."

Freshman computer science major Justin Hutton added he thinks tailgating is a problem, but said no matter how many burglaries occur, he doesn't think "kids will stop doing that."

"Most of the time they're just being nice, and a lot of the time you can't tell if the person lives there," Hutton said.

Many students agreed that students just need to lock their doors, even if it is annoying.

"People have to leave their doors locked — that's the most important thing," Hutton said.
For some students, part of remembering to secure their dorm rooms is taking a different attitude — by thinking of their room as "home."

"You really have to shut the door after yourself," freshman communication major Lewis Sogge said. "You've got to treat it like your house. You wouldn't let a stranger into your own house. You've got to make sure you lock your door even though it's sort of annoying that you have to lock your door just to go to the bathroom."

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