Cornell students have recently experienced a wave of crime alert emails. There have been five sent out so far this semester, many involving unlocked doors.
On January 28th, students received a notification regarding an alleged burglary which occurred in the 100 Block of Highland Place in Ithaca. The alleged burglar walked into the residence and demanded money from its inhabitants.
On February 21st, an alert notified Cornellians of another alleged burglary, this time at Hans-Bethe House between February 20th and February 21st. The burglar was able to enter the dorm room because it was unlocked, then stole a TV and other personal property of the resident.
Also on February 21st, in the 500 block of East State Street, a man allegedly forced a female resident into her apartment, and when she fought back, she was stabbed. The police reported the event as an attempted burglary which escalated to aggravated assault.
As if the alleged burglaries and assault weren’t bad enough, Cornell students also received an alert regarding someone entering an unlocked dorm room in the Bauer section of Court-Kay-Bauer Hall. The alleged intruder hid under a resident’s bed, then left the room once the actual resident fell asleep.
Even more recently, on March 4th, a resident of Cornell’s Jameson Hall reported another burglary in which a wallet was stolen from their dorm between March 3rd and 4th.
This is not to mention the many property crimes inflicted upon Cornellians last semester. These included the infamous Cascadilla Hall thief, so-called “Ginsburglar,” and a bizarre window entry in Edgemoor. Many of these crimes were also due to unlocked doors.
Ithaca has a yearly property crime rate of 39.67 per 1000 residents, giving the average resident about a 1 in 25 chance of being the victim of a property crime every year. New York state has a yearly property crime rate of about 13.51 per 1000 residents or a 1 in 74 chance of being a victim every year. These statistics demonstrate that property crime is an especially problematic issue in Ithaca, more so than New York State as a whole.
The simplest solution to this problem is for students to lock their room doors. According to a resident of Court-Kay-Bauer, Diane Garcia,
“People in CKB are pretty trusting with one another, so we let people into the building regularly and we barely lock our doors. After most crime reports about stealing in other buildings, we still don’t lock our doors because we think ‘that wouldn’t happen in CKB.’”
Garcia’s comment echoes the thoughts of many Cornell students. Garcia also said that “after this event, everyone I know has begun to lock their doors” and “everyone has been way more cautious about who and if we open the door for others.” Brian Hofstetter, another CKB resident, agreed: “I have decided to lock my door.”
Hopefully, spreading awareness of these recent events will increase the number of students who lock their doors and ward off future would-be burglars.
