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This October saw a major increase in burglaries from the previous year, adding to the trend of higher levels of crimes against property — like thefts and burglaries — since last year.

The eight-fold increase in burglaries — from one in October 2013 to eight last month — adds to the trend of more burglaries in the Penn Patrol Zone this calendar year, which more than doubled last year’s reports. In the past two months, 15 burglaries were reported, compared to the two reported in September and October of last year.


Part of this month’s increase stems from a string of off-campus burglaries reported at the end of September and the beginning of October, which prompted the Division of Public Safety to issue a safety advisory.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said that October’s increase in burglaries was due in part to the fact that students don’t lock their doors. If a person’s door is unlocked, a burglar can easily enter a house and steal that person’s belongings, Rush said.

“Just like you and your friends have a designated driver for your car, you need to have a designated ‘lock er’ for your door,” Rush advised.

Bike thefts also increased in October by 50 percent, as compared to the previous year. Rush said this is largely due to students not locking their bikes or using easily-defeated locks. Some students have the more powerful U-locks, but they might lock it in an incorrect way that eventually results in the loss of their bikes, Rush said.

However, as bike thefts and burglaries have gone up this October, crimes against people — like forcible sex offenses, assaults and robberies — have largely decreased this year. Crimes against people are down 23 percent from 2013.

There have been half as many sex offenses reported in 2014 as compared to last year at this time. However, Rush cautioned that might not mean that Penn has been successful in reducing the total number of offenses, since some go unreported.

“A lot of sex offenses usually happen in doors, and oftentimes the only way to prevent them is to educate students. We don’t know if the number going down means success from our part,” Rush said. “All we know is that we are trying to make sure that victims of sex offenses know how to report a case.”

This October also saw a 36 percent decrease in thefts, with a large decrease in retail theft, which dropped down to one report, as compared to the six made last October. Rush attributed the decrease to the retail theft task force deployed during the summer. Although the task force ended its work in September, Rush said that the task force had a substantial effect on deterring shoplifters which still remains.

Two cases of arson were also reported last month. Rush said these were two small fires on trash at a construction site near the Perelman Center, and police officers and firemen reacted immediately. No one has been arrested for the arson cases yet, and the investigation is still ongoing.

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