S. Campus break-ins spoil long weekend

Boston University students reported four break-ins at university residencies on Beacon Street starting last Thursday, BU Police Department officials said.
The break-ins all occurred during the daytime between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 824 and 860 Beacon Street, BUPD Sgt. Jeff Burke said.
‘It is all under investigation at this time,’ he said.
No one has been caught yet, but there are a few possible suspects, Burke said. There was one instance in which a witness came forward and described two men in one of the buildings. The men were older and did not look like students, and they were wearing dark blue, long-sleeved work shirts and dark blue jeans, he said.
School of Management junior Tenny Pandika said her room was burglarized last Thursday morning.
‘I left here at 7:30, and my roommate came back at 3, so it was sometime between,’ she said.
Pandika said it looked like the burglars used a crowbar to get into her room. She said she and her roommate never deadbolt their door, because the door handle locks automatically.
‘When you opened the door, you could see on the panel of the wood that there were metal marks,’ she said. ‘We were talking to the locksmith . . . and they said if you deadbolt it, they probably wouldn’t have gotten in just by a crowbar.’
Pandika said she does not know how the burglars could have entered, because students need to use a key to get into the building. The burglars took her roommate’s laptop and iPod, but Pandika had her electronics with her when she left that morning. She said the burglars also took the quarters she kept for her laundry.
‘I didn’t realize that until much later, because it was really insignificant at the time,’ she said.
Pandika said she does not feel unsafe despite the break-in.
‘A situation like this is really hard, and I feel like deadbolt-ing is one thing everyone could have done,’ she said. ‘It still kind of baffles me how it happened.’
College of Communication junior Nick Puglisi, a resident in one of the buildings where the burglaries occurred, said the burglaries have made him feel ‘pretty unsafe.’
‘It’s crazy that someone would rob the door right across from the main entrance,’ he said.
Puglisi said that while his room was not broken into, a burglary occurred on the floor below him and another occurred on the floor above him.
Puglisi said he thinks his room was not broken into because he lives across the hall from his resident assistant.
‘It makes me feel lucky,’ he said.
Puglisi said BU did not inform the residents of South Campus or Beacon Street as thoroughly as he would have liked.
‘I think the university should have sent something out to South Campus,’ Puglisi said. ‘They haven’t sent anything out, email-wise.’
South Campus Director Jeffrey Dahlander, who is a part of the Office of Residence Life, signed letters that were posted on the main entrances of many South Campus residences informing students of the break-ins and warning them to deadbolt their doors.