A recent rash of thefts on campus culminated with the burglary of three unlocked cars in Hanover's Lot One on Tuesday night. Hanover Police have not ruled out a connection between the night's events and the recent "spike" in thefts.
"This is a substantial inquiry," Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said.
Last week saw five campus-related reports of computer thefts, one report of a stolen iPod and speakers, and the theft of a Ford Explorer. For the most part, the thefts took place in unlocked rooms in fraternities.
Missing items reported in relation to Tuesday's car burglaries consisted of small items of little to no value, including checkbooks, daily planners and water bottles. Many of the stolen items were recovered later that night a block and a half away from the scene of the crime.
According to Giaccone, the multiple computer thefts could have been committed by the same individuals.
"The common denominator on the laptop thefts is that we have descriptions of two young males at each of the locations having been seen in the respective buildings before the thefts were discovered," Giaccone said, noting that the males were spotted at approximately two-thirds of the locations of the thefts.
The males are described as college-aged, though not necessarily associated with the College, and approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and 6 feet 1 inch tall with black and curly brown hair, respectively. The two were spotted at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity by SAE brother Michael Schowalter '07, who said the two men entered the fraternity at 1:30 a.m. on Monday. Later that morning, the laptop of SAE member Robert Rose '06 was missing.
Matthew Siegfried '08 became yet another victim of this week's crime spree when his laptop was stolen after he briefly left his unlocked room at Bones Gate fraternity on Saturday.
"I actually don't particularly care about the computer as the screen was fully detached from the body," Siegfried wrote in a campus-wide BlitzMail message. "It's that darn 25-page paper on there that I have a hard copy of and don't want to retype."
Mishanagqus Mills '05, whose Explorer was stolen last Monday, saw the burglaries as potentially changing Dartmouth students' habit of leaving car and dorm rooms unlocked.
"Whenever I do get a new car, I'm obviously always going to lock it," Mills said, "which is something I'm just not used to. It was something I thought I wouldn't have to worry about at Dartmouth."
