As students depart campus for Thanksgiving Break and leave their valuable belongings behind, the Division of Public Safety is working to ensure that opportunistic burglars are not among those giving thanks.
Any Penn student, faculty or staff member who lives off-campus between Market Street and Baltimore avenue, from 30th Street to 43rd Street, is eligible to sign up for free residential "security checks" at any time before he or she vacates the residence.
Penn officers will visit residences on the security check list at least once during each eight-hour shift, according to Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.
They will look for signs of criminal activity and security breaches. If officers find any they will investigate, secure the premises and notify the student.
To sign up for the service, students, faculty and staff can either fill out a form at the Division of Public Safety Building -- located at 4040 Chestnut Street -- or complete the process electronically on the DPS Web site, publicsafety.upenn.edu.
The vulnerability of unoccupied residences became clear this summer, when a rash of burglaries hit University City.
Some students -- particularly those with year-round leases -- left their homes and apartments unoccupied, sometimes for months at a time.
A handful returned to find that thieves had taken high-end electronics equipment such as laptop computers.
Rush believes that the security checks will deter criminals from robbing unoccupied homes of those affiliated with the University during this shorter period of vacancy.
-- Andrew Whitney
