University of Iowa police respond to residence hall burglaries

IOWA CITY - University of Iowa police are investigating more than a dozen burglary reports involving unlocked rooms in Quadrangle and Hillcrest residence halls over the weekend.

Suspects apparently entered the dorm rooms late Saturday into early Sunday and stole property while the residents either were away or asleep, according to police. UI police apparently interrupted the suspects during their spree, and recovered many of the pilfered possessions, according to Dave Visin, interim director of the UI Department of Public Safety.

'We found stolen property during our regular patrols of the building,” Visin said, adding that many of the belongings have been returned to their owners.

Officers did not catch the suspects, however, and no one has been arrested in connection with the burglaries, most of which occurred in Quadrangle Residence Hall, according to UI incident reports. Investigators took 13 second-degree burglary reports from that building, all of which occurred early Sunday.

Police during the same time period also took theft and suspicious people and activity reports from Hillcrest, which sits next to Quadrangle, and investigators are looking into whether the reports are related, Visin said.

Burglary sprees like this one are infrequent, according to Visin.

'But it does happen,” he said. 'We could have one bad person go through on one weekend and do a lot of these crimes.”

The advice for students is to lock doors.

'Even when you're going to the restroom or when you're sleeping,” he said. 'Make sure they're locked.”

The university's annual crime statistics for 2013, the most recent data available, show a decline in burglaries - dropping from 28 in 2010 to 10 in 2013. Meanwhile, theft reports to campus authorities went up, climbing from 167 in 2010 to 195 in 2013, according to the annual report.

Anyone with information on the weekend burglaries can call 319-335-5022 or email police@uiowa.edu.