UPDATED: Feb. 11, 2:12 a.m.

Personal and university property were stolen from several offices on the third floor of Newhouse II Sunday. The thefts occurred in conjunction with at least 18 attempted break-ins to rooms 335 through 376.

An email was sent out to S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications faculty and staff at around 4:41 p.m. Sunday notifying them that the Department of Public Safety was investigating a stolen laptop. Several of the offices showed evidence of their doors being tampered with, but it is unclear if they were broken into or if the attempts were unsuccessful, according to an email sent by Susan Nash, director of administration at Newhouse. The burglaries took place during the weekend, between Friday night and Sunday evening, said DPS Chief Tony Callisto.

The thefts are connected to the eight academic buildings that were burglarized in the last two weeks, including Huntington Hall, Sci-Tech, the College of Law, Crouse College and Archbold, Callisto said. Small electronics were mostly stolen from the buildings, except for one case in which a check was stolen, Callisto said.

The markings on the doors in Newhouse appear to be made by a crow bar, said Suzanne Lysak, an assistant professor of broadcast and digital journalism. Lysak, whose office is located in room 370 of Newhouse II, said nothing was stolen from her office.

But other professors weren’t so lucky. Kevin O’Neill, an associate professor of advertising, and Johanna Keller, an associate professor of arts journalism, reported laptops were stolen from their offices. Keller said two university-owned laptops, USB drives and other minor items were stolen from her office, while O’Neill said a personal laptop was stolen out of a drawer in his desk. Their offices are located in rooms 332 and 335, respectively.

Three DPS officers lifted fingerprints from all offices that had crow bar markings on their doorframes, Keller said. She said she had never seen any incident as severe as this in all her time at Newhouse.

“When I learned of the events, I had a very bad feeling in my stomach,” Keller said. “Something like this is unprecedented.”

Keller said officers weren’t giving much information, but just wanted to know what professors saw and knew. She added that Newhouse had already started working on replacing some of the university property that was stolen. She said getting other items replaced might be tricky because the university is self-insured.

Callisto said DPS is working closely with the Syracuse Police Department to get detectives and evidence technicians assigned to the investigation.

Though DPS has seen these kinds of crimes for many years, Callisto said DPS has seen more than usual and has tripled how frequently officers check buildings. This could be a way to prevent future incidents like the burglaries in Newhouse, which Callisto said he believes were made by someone who stayed in the building after hours during the weekend.

William Ward, a professor of social media, said several of his desk drawers were rummaged through and a Jawbone JAMBOX wireless speaker that sat on his desk was stolen. Other items, such as a webcam, microphone and a printer, were left untouched, he said. He added that there were cracks in the windows behind his desk.

Even though the email was sent out Sunday afternoon, Simon Perez, an assistant professor of broadcast and digital journalism, said he came back to check his office after the Syracuse vs. Clemson game ended. An unopened, personal webcam was stolen out of its box, and several items, including a small TV, looked like they were moved, he said. Perez said he filed a report with DPS as per the instructions in the email.

Perez said he didn’t know if any professors were in their office during the break-in. He added that he and other professors thought DPS could strengthen security measures by adding security cameras, scheduling late night patrols and making sure staff use deadbolts on their doors.

“We’re just waiting to see what happens next,” Perez said.

Published on February 10, 2014 at 2:30 pm

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu