Burglary of student home prompts reminder to lock up home

By Cheyenne Schoen | August 31, 2016 1:24pm
off_campus
by Hannah Baade / The Beacon

A house rented by six University of Portland seniors in the 6700 block of N. Monteith Ave. was burglarized early Monday morning, resulting in thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen items.

Senior Marcus Yoo woke up around 1:30 a.m. to a man attempting to steal a sports jersey from his bedroom wall.

The man fled the home when Yoo woke up. Yoo said there was most likely more than one intruder, but he was not sure exactly how many there were.

Among the stolen items were a gaming system, a television, a camera, a drone, a projector, a sound system, shoes and car keys. Yoo estimates the losses to be about three thousand dollars.

Portland Police responded to a call from the house around 2 a.m. A baseball cap from one of the intruders was found at the scene and was taken by police as evidence.

Security camera footage from a neighboring home showed a man walking down the street carrying the residents’ television that night, but Yoo said police did not have any leads on the identity of the intruder as of Wednesday morning.

Yoo said the front door had been left unlocked because one of the housemates was still out and the rest thought he would be back shortly after they went to sleep.

“It was definitely unsettling,” Yoo said. “We are all more aware now I guess, and it’s starting to get back to normal. Right now we are all just thankful that we’re all okay and none of us got hurt.”

Senior Joe Dummer, also a resident of the house, said the home has been “like Fort Knox” since the burglary — the doors are always locked now.

UP’s Department of Public Safety advises students living off campus to keep doors locked at all times, especially during sleeping hours.

“My advice is that even if you’re up and moving around the house, it’s just a good idea to keep your doors locked because there are people that just wander by and wonder what’s going on inside the house,” said Gerry Gregg, director of Public Safety. “It’s just really a good practice to do that at all times.”

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