BY JACQUELINE SMALL

In print | Published October 28, 2010

On the morning of October 21, between six and seven thirty, five cars on and near campus were broken into, and several items that were inside the vehicles were stolen.

Three of the cars were in Bond parking lot, one was located in Cunningham lot, which is near the arboretum’s office, and one vehicle was located near the business district in the borough of Swarthmore.

Three of the cars belong to Swarthmore students, one belongs to a Public Safety staff member, and the one in the Ville belongs to a borough resident.

Expensive coats, a calculator, books, a shoulder bag and a small amount of money, totalling about three dollars, were taken from the cars. For the victims of the crime, most of the cost will be replacing their broken windows.

Because there was no attempt to start the cars, Public Safety does not suspect that there was any intention to steal the vehicles themselves.

Owen Redgrave, director of Public Safety, said that people should hide their valuables. If they must be left in cars, and close their windows and lock their doors.

There are no known witnesses, but in an announcement in the Reserved Students Digest, Public Safety urged anyone who has information about the crimes to come forward.

Redgrave, however, is not optimistic about successfully catching the thief. “Very, very few people are caught in these kinds of situations where we don’t have any witnesses,” he said.

Redgrave also said that when cases like this are solved, it is usually through other means, such as catching the criminal in the act of another crime, or someone turning in the thief in order to receive more lenient sentencing for his or her own crimes.

Public Safety and the local police are working on the case together, and they believe that one individual or group is responsible for the break-ins.

Redgrave said that this is very out of the ordinary and that usually there are five or fewer events like this per year, including in the summer.

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