A series of burglaries at off-campus apartments has meant a not-so-happy homecoming for quite a few Northwestern students.
At least four residential burglaries were reported last weekend by NU students just returning to campus, said Deputy Chief Joe Bellino of Evanston Police Department.
On Dec. 20 officers arrested two Chicago men who police believe were involved in at least three other recent burglaries, Bellino said.
Communication junior Emily Weiss returned to her apartment on the 600 block of Clark Street Saturday night to find a broken window and glass covering her dining room floor.
“From that point I was like, ‘I don’t think that was the wind. I think someone broke in,'” Weiss said Monday. “And I was scared.”
Weiss said the burglar took about $3,000 worth of items, including a stereo, laptop, desktop and DVD player. Her neighbor’s apartment, which is in the same building, had also been burglarized.
EPD is investigating if there is evidence to link other burglaries to Jimmie and Erik Henley, the Chicago brothers arrested Dec. 20, Bellino said.
The brothers were arrested after an officer saw Jimmie Henley trying to climb through the window of a house on the 800 block of Simpson Street at about 7:30 p.m., Bellino said.
Police chased Henley, who began running when he saw the officer, and arrested him on the 1100 block of Garnett Place.
Henley, 36, is charged with attempted burglary and possession of burglary tools.
Erik Henley, 34, was stopped later that night while driving a suspicious vehicle. He is charged with attempted burglary and driving with a suspended license.
“Due to other items that were found on (the brothers), we suspect them of three or four other burglaries,” Bellino said.
Bellino said police are unsure whether last weekend’s burglaries could be linked to the brothers.
The officer patrolling Simpson Street on Dec. 20 was part of a team of EPD and University Police officers focused on monitoring houses around Simpson, Foster, Noyes and Hamlin streets, Bellino said.
“We know that these are typical off-campus housing neighborhoods,” he said. “History tells us that there’s a potential for (crimes like) this to occur.”
Asst. Chief Daniel McAleer of UP said he was pleased with the joint effort.
“They ran the operation and did a very good job of it, and thankfully we caught some bad guys,” McAleer said.
The team was formed after several area burglaries were reported, Bellino said.
Weinberg senior Adam Boscoe said his apartment on the 1100 block of Simpson Street was burglarized over Thanksgiving break.
Boscoe said he and his roommates took every precaution they could before leaving town.
“We put down our blinds, we made sure all the windows were locked, we locked all the doors,” he said.
Other burglaries reported last weekend included apartments on the 1000 block of Davis Street and the 800 block of Noyes Street, Bellino said.
Medill senior Erin McKnight said when she and a friend returned to her basement apartment on Noyes Street Friday, neither noticed the robbery at first because her room is “usually a mess.”
“But when I went to look for my computer, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s not here,'” she said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s bad.'”
McKnight said the value of the stolen items — which included her laptop and iPod, and her roommate’s sheets and pillowcase — was “definitely over $1,000.”
“But they did leave our stand-up Elvis,” she said, referring to the six-foot figure she and her roommate found at a poster store off of Dempster Street. “So we felt better.”
Reach Marissa Conrad at [email protected].
