As students prepare to head home for Winter Break, they’ll be leaving their respective homes for approximately a month.
And there’s certainly a risk that some of your belongings could be stolen.
The Badger Report’s Jon Sklar has the story.
As Jamie Weintraub returned to his apartment last week, he immediately noticed something wasn’t right.
“I came into my room and saw everything was out of sorts. All the cabinets were broken, closets were open, and it was very clear to me that someone had been going through my stuff. My PlayStation was sitting right on top of here, and now its gone.”
The Langdon Area has seen a recent increase in burglaries at fraternity and sorority houses, along with residential apartment buildings. Madison Police have begun to increase their efforts in keeping your belongings safe.
“Generally, the isthmus and college areas are heavily targeted anyway because students are vulnerable and their focused on their studies, you’re younger in age and we were all that age at some point. You kind of don’t expect it because you don’t do things like that, so you don’t expect that out of other people.”
Detective Jokola mentioned that burglars will target packages left out on porches along with broken screen doors. Meanwhile, Marc Lovicott, a spokesman for the University police mentioned a few tips that students can follow in order to protect their apartments over break.
“If you know that you are going to be out of town for a couple of weeks because of winter break, make sure you contact the post office to stop the mail, or the newspaper because that’s a sign that thieves are looking for, where they see eight, nine, ten newspapers out front, of course no one’s been home for eight to nine days. That’s an opportunity for someone to get into your home without you even knowing about it and stealing your items.”