PENNSYLVANIA MORE COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM STUDENT APARTMENTS AT PENN STATE UNIVERSITY Police: More student thefts: " Monday, Feb. 5, 2007 ]
Police: More student thefts


By Halle Stockton
Collegian Staff Writer

Two downtown State College apartments were burglarized early yesterday morning, marking the second consecutive weekend unlocked residences have been targeted, State College police said.

Electronics and wallets were stolen some time between midnight and 2 a.m. yesterday from apartments on the sixth and third floors of Beaver Hill apartments, 340 E. Beaver Ave. Each apartment had estimated losses between $1,000 and $1,500, State College Police Cpl. Barrett Smith said.

There are no suspects or leads, Smith said. Victims in both apartments returned home between 1 and 2 a.m. to find their items missing, he added.

A black laptop computer, a Dell flat-screen computer monitor, an iPod nano and a wallet containing $60 were taken from two people in the third-floor apartment, police said. A Compaq laptop computer, a Bluetooth earpiece and a wallet containing $20 were taken from one person of the sixth-floor apartment, police said.

Both apartments were unlocked, Smith said.

"This can all be avoided by locking your door," he added.

Although police are not yet drawing any connection between this incident and the burglary that occurred Jan. 28 in an apartment in The Graduate, 138 S. Atherton St., Smith said there is "probably a good chance" they are related.

A woman sleeping in an unlocked Graduate apartment awoke at about 4 a.m. to five unknown black men who were rummaging through the apartment taking computers and other items, police said. The men stole two Dell Inspiron laptop computers, a Sony PlayStation, an X-Box, an iPod speaker-docking base, a computer monitor, DVDs and video games, police said.

Both burglary investigations are active, and no arrest has been made in the Graduate incident; however, two of the men were seen by a resident of the Graduate apartment on their way out, police said.

Police responded to another incident at Beaver Hill apartments Jan. 24. Police said a white man knocked on a resident's door and asked for his roommate. Police said the man then made his way through the doorway, accompanied by two black men, and pulled a 4-inch pocketknife on the resident. The men stole a Dell laptop computer, a cell phone and an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

Police determined last weekend's Beaver Hill robbery was not related to the Graduate burglary.