Claire Montgomery
Senior News Writer
On Jan. 14, Director of Security and Protective Services (SPS) Steve Glick sent an email to the campus community about the break-in of a campus house. The building was later identified by house members as Weber House. “Several student rooms were entered and items were taken,” Glick stated. “The incident is being investigated by SPS and the police department. There are no suspects at this time.”
When asked how the break-in was discovered, Glick said, “Officers saw a light on in one of the small houses and upon checking found that someone had gone through the house, damaging a door. There were no obvious signs of entry.” Jason Cerniglia ’20, a resident of Weber House, said, “The members of Weber House heard about the break-in upon arriving back to campus on Sunday, Jan. 12, when a resident entered the house that afternoon.” Cerniglia added that the break-in was reported on either Dec. 20 or 21.
“The responding officer believed that an incident did occur, but from his/her perspective, no items of value were stolen,” Cerniglia stated. Jacob Stewart ’20 commented on the initial response of the officer who discovered the incident. “The responding officer did not file a police report when the incident occurred,” he said, “because [they] believed it would be too difficult for the members of the house to determine what had been taken.” Stewart added that the officer filed the incident as “informational” and that “given this designation, the break-in was not flagged by the system and the Chiefs of Security were never notified.” However, Stewart emphasized that they did not fault Glick or Associate Director Joe Kirk. “We as a house found Steve Glick and Joe Kirk to be helpful through the process,” Stewart said. “We do not want to speak for either of them, but the negligence exhibited by the responding officers were not taken lightly by Steve and Joe, or the house.” Jacob Beuter ’20 reiterated Kirk’s helpfulness, saying, “Joe Kirk inspected the property and placed latches onto multiple basement windows.” Beuter said the culprit likely entered the house through a basement window that could be pushed open from outside.
Other members of the house including Mick Appel ’20 and Seth Burke ’21 reported that out of the 10 house members, at least six had items stolen. Although they cannot go into the specifics, miscellaneous objects such as clothing items and change jars were taken.
When asked about the morale of the house, member Clark Morin ’20 stated, “There is obviously a level of anxiety involved given the incident, but the members of the house are coping with the situation well.”
In Glick’s initial email, he finished by reminding the members of campus to “make sure all doors shut securely behind you, report suspicious activity, do not keep any doors propped open, secure first floor windows and report any nonworking doors or windows to Facilities or SPS.” Moreover, “residents of small houses can request a security review of their houses by contacting” Kirk or Glick.
