A string of attempted burglaries with a similar pattern at Cal State Long Beach has University Police increasing its patrol in the areas where the crimes occurred.
Police discovered damaged door handles in the Engineering 4, Education 1 and Fine Arts 2 buildings from July 16 to July 23. So far nothing has been stolen, but police believe the suspect is damaging the door handles with the intent to commit a theft.
“We know that the forced entry was used to [try to] gain access and while there are some similarities we haven’t ruled out the possibility that it could be the same person,” said University Police Captain Fernando Solorzano.
Police are unsure of when the attempted burglaries occurred since faculty and staff are away on summer break and because some of the buildings are unoccupied due to construction.
“We have no idea when they were broken into,” said Detective Sergeant Scot Willey. “These all could’ve happened in one night or it could’ve happened over a month or so with everybody leaving after graduation.”
The suspect is using some kind of tool to break off the door knobs and police say they have a rough idea of what it is. Police would not release any leads and declined to comment on what tool the suspect may be using due to ongoing investigations. Police believe the suspect is breaking into the rooms at random as he tries “to make a quick buck,” Willey said.
Police have had help from workers of CSULB’s Facilities Management in finding the damaged door handles due to their ability to notice changes on campus that are out of the ordinary. In addition, officers themselves have searched for other burglary attempts but aren’t sure if they’ve discovered every one.
“What happens in stuff like this during summer is that we won’t know the real number [of attempts] until people come back from the break,” Willey said.
University Police are asking people that if they see anybody going around campus late at night looking into windows or grabbing door handles to call them right away, which can be done anonymously via their Crime Tip Line at (562)986-5131. They can also be reached at (562)985-4101.
“I think there’s a possibility we can catch this suspect,” Solorzano said, “with, I think, the help of our community…[and] being more visible in the area.” All the door handles have been replaced by Facilities Management.
This is well done. Covering the cop beat on a regular basis and building trust with naturally suspicious sources does lead one to find stories that otherwise would be missed. (I know this from experience.)
interesting,