Police agencies report close to 20 break-ins, one on campus over holiday break
Several student housing areas throughout Isabella County were victim to breaking and enterings over the holiday break.
The Isabella County Sheriff’s Department reported 14 burglary offenses from Dec. 10 through Jan. 11.
“This number is a little higher than what we’ve normally seen,” he said.
Mioduszewski said the intruders try to target where there are not a lot of people around and the chances of successfully breaking in are higher.
He said many electronic items like video games, DVDs and an Xbox unit were stolen.
Two suspects confessed to the crimes, Mioduszewski said, after they were located and arrested. Most of the property stolen was recovered and returned to owners.
“The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police, Mount Pleasant Police, and CMU police were all instrumental in locating the subjects that broke into those apartments,” Mioduszewski said. “There was a good law enforcement effort here in the county.”
The Mount Pleasant Police Department reported four student housing break-ins during the winter break period.
Their number of burglaries were reduced by half compared to the 2009-10 break.
“These numbers show that both our educational campaign is working and that our prevention patrols are working,” said MPPD Public Information Officer Jeff Browne.
MPPD published safety tips the week before break to educate students about how they can keep their residence secure.
Browne said there may be groups of individuals that wait for students to go on break. He said this could be one of the contributing factors to break-ins in student housing.
“There could be people who prey upon that,” Browne said.
Browne said from past experience, many break-ins have occurred because students do not secure their doors and neglect to take small safety precautions.
He said he wants students to be aware that things like this do happen in Mount Pleasant.
“The more people we can touch upon and talk to will help reduce the number of break-ins,” he said.
The number of student housing breaking and enterings was also low in CMU’s campus housing.
Lt. Cameron Wassman said there was only one incident over break. An individual broke into a Barnes Hall kitchen on Dec. 19.
“There was approximately $50 of food items stolen,” Wassman said. “But the items were later recovered.”
Wassman said no arrests have been made at this time and that the incident is still under investigation.
He said break-ins are typically reported by students the week after classes have started, but he does not anticipate many.
