Residence hall burglaries up

A sharp increase of burglaries reported in residence halls throughout the last two years has students worried about losing their property to theft.

According to a recent report by the Department of Public Safety, there were only two cases of burglary in residence halls in 2009 and seven in 2010 — but in 2011, this number jumped to 22.

Department spokesman Randy Young said residence hall burglaries can be easily avoided if students lock their doors whenever they leave their rooms.

Most burglaries in residence halls occur when thieves take small amounts of property from empty and unlocked rooms, Young said.

“If students locked their room doors, we would have little to no larcenies at residence hall facilities,” said Rick Bradley, assistant director of assignments and communication for Housing and Residential Education.

Bradley said he believes burglary is a campus-wide problem — not specific to residence halls.

Young said the increase in incidents in residence halls might be an aberration: “It could be as simple as one rash that occurred during a certain time.”

And Bradley said he thinks the increase is partially a result of students reporting more incidents.

Young said it is possible that increased reporting could account for part of the rise, but that it might not explain the entire increase.

“We’d like to think people are more apt to report now, but whether they’re more apt to report than they were eight months ago or even 18 months ago — that’s hard to say.”

Bradley said because the report was released recently, the housing department has not taken any actions to combat the problem.

“We’re not at a point where I can cite specific things that we’ve taken action on,” he said.

Freshman Prasant Baratam, who lives in Hinton James residence hall, said he is concerned about having his property stolen.

“I’m pretty careful,” Baratam said. “Whenever I go out of my room, I always lock the door.”

Freshman Ajene Robinson-Burris, another Hinton James resident, said she also worries about theft.

“I feel like people are really liable to steal in college because we’re all broke,” she said.

Young said students should call 911 if they witness any suspicious activity, becoming “the eyes and the ears of the Department of Public Safety.”

“We want to hear about it,” Young said.

“If we know about it, we certainly can act.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.