$4000 of Jewelry Stolen From Henle
Residents of Henle 15 reported that $4,000 worth of jewelry and other items were missing from their apartment sometime Monday.
The four female students in the apartment told investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department that they had locked the door before leaving, and that no one had been in the apartment since before 10 a.m. that morning. When they returned around 5 p.m., they discovered that there had been a break-in. The victims could not be reached for comment.
The Department of Public Safety responded to the scene immediately, and MPD officers arrived around 7 p.m. Lincois Anderson, director of Harbin Hall, and Jerome Wilson, university locksmith, also arrived at the scene.
James Volvino, an MPD investigator, said that although the lock did not appear to be broken, it would not have been difficult for an intruder to gain entry to the apartment.
“If the door was locked, it really just depends what condition the lock was in,” he said. “It could have been as easy as just pushing hard on it.”
While the victims spoke with MPD officers for over three hours, Georgetown’s facilities team made arrangements to have the locks changed as soon as investigators had finished collecting evidence.
Volvino said these sorts of burglars are often repeat offenders.
“Usually, in these cases, it’s an individual with a drug problem who does this consistently,” Volvino said. “When you catch one person, you can sometimes close 50 or 60 cases at once.”
Volvino said that students should deadbolt their doors for extra security. “If you’re going to make it easy for them, they’re going to break in,” he said.
DPS and Lincois Anderson declined to comment.
Sep 30 2008 at 3:21 p.m.
wtf? I know this is Georgetown, but really, keeping $4000 worth of jewelry in your apartment sounds a bit unnecessary. Yes, you left your door locked and you were actually responsible (unlike past "break-ins" when residents kept their doors foolishly unlocked).
Still, considering that increase in robberies on campus in the past year or two, it's a safer bet to keep these items at your home away from Georgetown.
One of the reasons why these robbers keep coming back is because they know they can find such expensive and valuable items in Georgetown apartments and residence halls. Laptops are something that we generally can't live without, but $4000 of jewelry, I think, has no place in a college apartment.
Sep 30 2008 at 9:41 p.m.
"James Volvino, an MPD investigator, said that although the lock did not appear to be broken, it would not have been difficult for an intruder to gain entry to the apartment.
“If the door was locked, it really just depends what condition the lock was in,” he said. “It could have been as easy as just pushing hard on it.”
Volvino said that students should deadbolt their doors for extra security. “If you’re going to make it easy for them, they’re going to break in,” he said."
WTF? Even MPD admits that the locks on Georgetown doors are useless! Fine, I understand the advice to use the deadbolt, but you can't do that if no one is home!
My question for Mr. Volpino is how can students not "make it easy" for intruders to get in when no one is home, if he says that merely locking the door is not good enough? Volpino's comment sounds like he is blaming the students, when they couldn't have taken any more precautions beyond locking the door because NO ONE WAS HOME. Is Mr. Volpino suggesting that at least one resident should be in the apartment on guard duty at all times?
Oct 01 2008 at 9:12 p.m.
Mr. Volpino is a jerk. Some kids just got robbed and he blames them? No wonder people hate MPD.
Also...why would you have $4,000 worth of jewelry in your college apartment?
Oct 01 2008 at 11:47 p.m.
Just one more example that the Georgetown campus security is heavily lacking. Last year my son lived in Henle and several days after move-in, there was evidence that someone had entered and taken things from the cabinets, etc. When I called about this incident, I was told that the lock would be fixed or replaced immediately. It was over a week later that facilities even looked at the lock - and even then it still didn't work properly. I think it's time for new locks and added security!!!
Oct 02 2008 at 4:40 a.m.
These comments on '$4,000' worth of jewelry being overkill are somewhat naive. Particularly for women, it is extremely easy to have accumulated several thousand dollars worth of jewelry by the time you are in your 20s. This is not lifestyle of the rich and famous - it's 'lifestyle of the slightly upper middle class'. Things add up over time.
I've seen watches on peoples' wrist at gtown that EASILY cost $1k +. This is not that hard to imagine. Point to fact, if I was a thief, I would target the campus: relative affluence, lots of 'soft targets' - particularly on thursday, friday, and saturday night when everyone is stumbling around drunk - and relatively light / ineffective security precautions.
Oct 02 2008 at 5:07 a.m.
who cares if you've accumulated $4k worth of jewelery over time? doesn't mean it belongs at college. neither do $1k watches. and get some more life experience before you claim a 1k watches are "slightly upper middle class". not even close.
Oct 02 2008 at 3:16 p.m.
Just goes to show that are definitely two different Georgetowns: one for the clueless upper crust, and another for the rest of us.
For all of you who have no choice but to do work-study, take an extra job or at least budget your money, I'm sure you're laughing along with me at that "slightly upper middle class" quote.
Come on, folks! If you've got a thousand bucks in disposable income, most likely from your parents, to blow on bling bling (or just blow up your nose), you're a whole Grand Canyon away from "middle class."
Georgetown's a great place, for sure, but this whole divide between people who flaunt their wealth and everyone else is by far the most irritating part of living here.
Oct 02 2008 at 3:55 p.m.
...and this has what to do with the article?
I'm sorry you find it irritating to be at Georgetown where there's a "divide between people who flaunt their wealth and everyone else," but mostly these kinds of comments always seem to me to stem from some kind of inferiority complex.
I'm a FWS student who is probably not even middle class, and I attended a private boarding high school as well, so I know what the gap you're speaking of looks like just as well as you. However, I don't believe that just because these people had more "disposable income" or what people consider a ridiculous amount of valuable jewelry means that they are automatically up for criticism and contempt.
What have they done wrong other than having been robbed? A thief is a thief and a robbed person is a robbed person. Private belongings are private belongings, whether they are a $10 watch from a supermarket or a 1k watch from a luxury brand. The criticism and contempt should've been directed towards whoever decided to steal, and instead, it has been directed towards innocent people who, for whatever reason, decided to keep their belongings with them. In their rooms. In their houses.
Inferiority complexes and the masses of discontent grumblers that validate them are the cancer that is killing perspective in this society.
Oct 02 2008 at 5:43 p.m.
My comment was directed at the poster who made the claim that having $4000 worth of jewelry is a sign of being "middle class." It's pretty clear I wasn't criticizing these particular victims, or the criminal(s) involved.
I think you've got it backwards. Someone who refers to the "masses of discontent grumblers" as a "cancer" seems to have a pretty outlandish superiority complex, to say the least. There's nothing wrong with having money, per se, but my issue is with the way a certain segment of our population flaunts it around.
To be fair, there are plenty of truly wealthy people here who are perfectly level-headed people. And, there are some not-so-wealthy kids who run up a bunch of credit cards so they can fit in with the jet set club.
I don't think I'm alone in recognizing that there's a sizeable percentage of our student body who have a severely warped view of the world. But, for obvious reasons, our Admissions Department continues to stuff our classes with kids who have sub-par intellects and super-sized bank accounts.
Oct 02 2008 at 8:50 p.m.
Everyone is missing one point: It's $4000 worth of stolen jewelry divided by 4 women in the apartment. So it's not necessarily that one student brought $4000 worth of jewelry to campus, it's more likely that each woman brought around $1000 worth of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and watches to school.
I think that a reasonable person would agree that $1000 worth of jewelry isn't an outrageous amount for a college student to have accumulated over 20 years (regardless of their parent's tax bracket). It's not that they all have $1000 dollar watches, but rather that each has a pretty nice watch worth $200, a couple of $100 necklaces from Tiffany's, 10 pairs of earrings at $20 a pop, etc.
Stop with the stupid class wars.