Winter break-ins occurred at a high rate while students were celebrating the holiday season away from Athens, officials said, and police reports from the first week of Spring Semester show that Apple MacBooks, TVs and jewelry were stolen.
Reports from the Athens Police Department detail six burglaries and ten thefts in Athens between Jan. 1 and Jan. 14, when most Ohio University students are returning to their houses off-campus for the first time since leaving for winter break.
The difference between thefts and burglaries involves intent. A theft involves taking something from someone else with the intent to permanently deprive them of it whereas burglary is the intent to break into a building without consent with the intent of committing a crime inside — including theft.
Of the six burglaries, five involved students who were away from their residences. All of those are either pending investigation or closed until a lead arises. There are no suspects in any of the burglary cases.
Two of the homes burglarized were right next to each other on Oak Street.
Some of the most valuable items stolen over the break include an emerald necklace, a gold ring, two Apple MacBooks and four televisions — one of which was a 51-inch LG flat-screen belonging to Jack Martanovic, a senior studying finance who resides at 17 Oak St.
Martanovic believes the person who stole the television from his house had to be someone that knew him or his roommates.
“It was an inside job. I mean I don’t know, I’m not blaming anyone, but you don’t know if anybody knows where we were keeping keys or whatever because there are a lot of electronics that you could steal around here, and if this was just some isolated inci
dent where someone was trying to rob and make money, why would they steal one thing and not everything if you’re trying to make money?” Martanovic said. “So it was really like, ‘Let’s take this, we know what we want.’”
Although a police report was filed, Martanovic doesn’t believe APD can do much to help.
“I mean I know it’s hard to monitor this whole city, but once something like this happens what can you really do?” Martanovic said. “You can’t really find something like this unless they raided somebody’s house and they found a bunch of TVs.”
The items stolen are in line with trends from previous breaks at OU when students leave town, APD Chief Tom Pyle said in a previous Post article, adding the perpetrators typically forcibly enter the property from a back door or window.
With OU’s spring break in the not-so-distant future, Lt. Jeff McCall said the best way to ensure your property is safe is to sign up for a vacation check with the department. All it takes is filling out one form at APD’s headquarters, 11 N. College St., and then the officers will check up on your property while you are gone — but in some instances, there might be little the cops can do.
“Let’s say someone leaves an unlocked window, (burglars) go in that window and go back out and close it. We will not know that entry was made,” McCall said. “Now, if we go there and the door is kicked in, then we know something is wrong.”
If an officer notices a forced entry, he or she can contact the residents and alert them that they might want to return to Athens and check the place, McCall said.
Another option is for students to install a timer system that will turn on lights in the house at certain times of the day, McCall said, adding that valuable property should not be left out in the open.
“This is difficult when students have large TVs. They’re not going to take and hide it, but laptops should not be left out,” he said.
The best option is letting the police know that you’re gone, McCall said, or agree among your roommates that someone will return over break and check up on the house or apartment.
“So if something happens, it’s recognized sooner than a month later where there is just not much we can do,” McCall said. “It makes it very difficult.”
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