An unidentified man made a burglary attempt Tuesday at a Gainesville house where three UF students live.
At about 6 p.m., one of the students came home to the 900 block of Southwest First Avenue to find a man he didn’t know in the bedroom of a roommate, according to a press release from Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias.
The student told the man — who entered the house through an unlocked door — to empty his pockets and made him leave, according to the release. No arrest was made.
After the man left, the student found electronics and clothes were missing. The man tried to steal six laptops and two Xbox 360s, according to an incident report.
“The items were discovered in a garbage bag and a cargo bag, stashed in another room, ready to be taken away,” Tobias wrote. “This is a perfect example of why people need to lock their homes.”
In the past week, 10 people have been arrested on charges related to burglary, according to Alachua County Jail logs.
Some of the burglaries coincide with the college move-in/move-out period, but police say it’s tough to tie strings of burglaries to specific reasons.
However, Tobias said, patterns of burglary can be seasonal.
“During the summer months, it comes and goes in waves,” Tobias said. “Criminals know that people are moving around and leaving stuff unsecured.”
Art Forgey, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said break-ins typically happen during the daytime. He suggests making residences look “lived in” to avoid attracting crime.
“It doesn’t cost much to leave your porch light on,” he said. “That tends to drive the criminal element away.”
Contact Kelcee Griffis at kgriffis@alligator.org.
