Late afternoon naps might not be as safe as they seem if you don’t lock your door.
The apartment of two Northwestern graduate students was burglarized Thursday between 2:00 and 4:30 p.m. while Samuel Nordlund, one of the residents, and Alisa Horn, his girlfriend, were taking a nap, police said.
The two music graduate students were asleep in the apartment on the 1400 block of Elmwood Avenue when intruders entered the apartment through an unlocked door and stole Nordlund’s laptop, several computer cords and Horn’s wallet, containing $20 cash, according to an Evanston Police Department report. The apartment is home to Nordlund, a second-year music graduate student; and Jared Scott, a first-year music graduate student.
“I heard someone walking around and thought it was (Nordlund’s) roommate coming back,” said Horn, a second-year music graduate student. “After we woke up, his roommate came back and I realized it couldn’t have been him walking.”
Nordlund said that after Horn left his apartment, he realized his laptop wasn’t where it was supposed to be. After Scott denied moving it, Nordlund said he called Horn, who then realized her wallet was missing as well.
“We did get my wallet back,” Horn said. “The couple in the apartment above us found the wallet outside their door, as if they took the cash and threw away the wallet after running upstairs.”
Evanston police are still investigating. Officers took fingerprints throughout the apartment, and Nordlund, Scott and Horn will give police their prints Monday, Nordlund said.
Nordlund’s bicycle was stolen from outside the apartment in a separate incident last week during the afternoon, Horn said. She said the two incidents surprised her, because they didn’t fit with the positive comments about the area they had heard from neighbors.
“They all have said it’s a great neighborhood,” Nordlund said. “The most disturbing thing is, we were in the apartment at the time it happened.”
Horn said Thursday’s incident was unusual because they almost always lock the door.
“I think people around this building should be careful,” Horn said. “It’s really creepy.”
-Laura Olson
