Evanston police arrested a man Friday morning in the basement of a Northwestern student’s residence in the 900 block of Hamlin Street after a neighbor told police that the man was burglarizing a car, witnesses said.
This most recent case is just one in a series of reported burglaries, beginning in December, of NU students who live in the 800 and 900 blocks of Hamlin Street.
Gillian Goldberg, a Weinberg senior who lives across the street from the site of the arrest, said police reported to her house at 9 a.m. to inform her that a neighbor had reported seeing a suspicious man searching through her car.
“I was just getting out of the shower when my friend told me the police were at the door and my car had been broken into,” Goldberg said.
After questioning her about what items might have been taken from her car, the officers followed a set of footprints in the snow to the locked basement door of the house across the street, Goldberg said.
Dave Thayer, a Speech junior who lives in the house where the man was found, said he let in the police through the front door and directed them to the basement.
“They found (the man) under some wood in the landlord’s storage room,” Thayer said.
One of the officers informed Thayer and his roommates that they had arrested the man and were taking him into custody, he said.
The Evanston Police Department could not be reached for comment regarding the recent burglaries or the arrest.
That afternoon, Goldberg said she positively identified a compact disc player adapter in the items taken from the suspect during the morning’s arrest.
Since early December, residents of the neighborhood said at least two other residences of NU students on the 800 and 900 blocks of Hamlin Street have been burglarized.
Seth Reznik, a Weinberg senior, said about $600 worth of electronic equipment was stolen from his apartment on the 800 block of Hamlin Street over the winter break.
He and his roommates returned home after the break to find a window broken and two televisions and a VCR missing.
Reznik said he filed a burglary report with EPD but declined to have detectives dust his apartment for fingerprints.
Nathan Sturycz, a Weinberg senior who lives on the 900 block of the street, said his roommate called EPD on Jan. 2 when he discovered that their apartment had been burglarized.
During an investigation of their apartment, police found a YMCA membership card that belonged to the resident of another apartment in the area that had been burglarized, Sturycz said.
