On Sept. 27, two male students were robbed of their iPhones outside of the Fitness and Recreation Center at about 3:30 p.m.
On Friday, at about 2:15 p.m., The Brookline Bank at 1016 Beacon Street was robbed.
And on Saturday, a female, who was sitting by a bench outside of the College of Fine Arts, struggled to hold on to her purse and gold chain necklaces when a male and female attempted to rob her at 12:30 p.m., Boston University Police Department officials said.
These are just three of the many robbery incidents that have occurred on and around campus in the last week.
BUPD Captain Robert Molloy said last week that crimes such as the robbery outside of FitRec last week are “random” and hard to prevent.
“It is unusual that such a well-traveled area, at the corner where the police department is, that a crime like this could happen,” Molloy told The Daily Free Press in an interview.
“We tell people to travel together, we tell people not use cell phones late at night and here they were just leaving FitRec walking toward the shuttles to get back to their residence hall,” he said.
Molloy also said students should call the police if they see any suspicious activity.
“Often people are afraid to call the police [in case] they have got it wrong.”
Police would rather someone call and be incorrect than not call at all, he said.
On Sept. 27 at about 1:30 a.m., a female student was standing outside on Babcock
Street when a male reportedly tried to converse with her and then grabbed her cell phone.
Another female student had to push one of three men who were surrounding her and tried to take her bag on Commonwealth Avenue at 8:30 p.m. last Monday. The student took off running after she had pushed the men away.
The majority of on-campus thefts occur when articles are left unattended, Molloy said.
Over a dozen laptops and iPods have been reported stolen to BUPD this semester, he added.
BUPD was able to return at least one laptop to the owner and arrest a suspect when they found the computer being sold on Craigslist.
In light of these incidents, BU spokesman Colin Riley said the BU community should work together to report and prevent crime.
“We need to encourage everyone else to participate in this&-be a part of the campus and be the eyes and ears&-see something and say something,” he said. “You can’t depend on someone else to do it.”
The increase of criminal activity in the past few weeks has made students more cautious than before, especially because some of them occurred during the day.
College of Engineering freshman Connor Roche said the thefts are unsettling.
“In the past I’ve felt pretty safe, now it’s a little skeptic,” he said. “If they did it in broad daylight it could happen anywhere.”
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