Many stolen property reports result of unlocked doors, officials say

Sleeping on her couch one night last year, senior Lizzie Shipley woke up at about 5 a.m. when she heard the door to her house open.

Nothing was stolen from her that night, but during the course of her junior year, a laptop and money were taken on different occasions while living with two other roommates in a house on the south side of Bloomington.

“The locks at our house never worked, and the managing company never did anything about it,” she said. “We were in and out all the time. Then weird stuff started happening. I had $60 stolen from me.”

Eventually, she said, the roommates got fed up with the situation and each got locks for their bedroom doors.

IU Police Department Sgt. Rebecca Schmuhl said based on her experiences, a majority of cases involving stolen property from students’ rooms happened when the students had visitors or left the door unlocked.

“Very few were forcibly entered,” she said.

Schmuhl also said many students have the habit of not locking their doors on a regular
basis.

Freshman Allie Medellin is one such student. Medellin lives in Ashton Center and said she feels safe leaving her door unlocked.

“I feel like I don’t have anything to worry about,” she said. “Most of the time I’m not too far away. Well, I lock it if I know I’m going to be gone for the night or if I’m going to be gone for a long time. I don’t usually lock my door, but I always have my key with me for some reason.”

Though she locked the door every time she left her dorm for the first week, Medellin said she stopped after meeting the other girls on her floor.

“So far I don’t think Ashton has a reputation like some dorms that people talk about,” she said. “Ashton is kind of safe, nothing bad happens.”

While Schmul said she thinks many students do not take the precaution, Sara Ivey Lucas, residence manager for the Division of Residential Programs and Services, said she believes most students heed the warning and lock up.

“I know that’s our policy, and what our student staff tells folks is you need to lock your doors,” Ivey Lucas said.  “You need to use common sense if you want to keep things protected. My sense is that most people are paying attention and heeding the advice that we’ve given them.”

Three RPS residence centers — Willkie Quad, McNutt Quad and Union Street Center — now have features that make students’ doors lock automatically, Ivey Lucas said.

“Anytime they leave, it works like a hotel door,” she said. “You have to use your student ID to gain access to your room. As we renovate other buildings, we’re looking to do that.”

Michel Maier-Bode, an exchange student from Germany and first-year graduate student, said he does not lock his doors when he leaves his house.

“The other guy in the house just said we don’t like it,” he said. “I just did what they told me to do. I don’t live really central, so I just feel like there’s not that many people coming around. In Germany, I would never leave it unlocked.”

He paused before he changed his mind.

“Actually, no I didn’t. OK, but if I think about it, I would,” he said.

Maier-Bode said the mentality of Americans is that it’s normal to leave the door unlocked — or at least the back door. But in a city larger than Bloomington, he would never leave it open.

David Kerber, a manager for Varsity Properties, said he’s sure some students living in
the Varsity Villas apartments leave their doors unlocked.

“You have four or five people running in and out all the time,” he said. “Generally, student culture is very much in and out, friends, roommates coming and going. I always recommend treating it like you’re at home; lock the doors behind you.”

Kerber said students’ doors are open to anyone when they leave them unlocked.

“You don’t know who you’re inviting in,” he said. “You don’t want to invite that type of activity.”

Freshman Raymond Hayes, who lives in Forest Quad, said he knows all the guys on his floor and trusts them.

“A fair amount of guys don’t leave their doors locked,” he said. “I don’t have that feeling of someone you don’t know coming in and grabbing anything they could take.”

Hayes said he has yet to hear of horror stories from someone who left their door unlocked.

“I’d probably start doing it if I heard of it happening,” Hayes said. “They always warn you about it, like it’s going to happen.”