A recent robbery off campus has raised concerns among residents about crime prevention measures.
A burglary at Partners Place apartment complex Oct. 20 remains under investigation, Kammie Michael, public information officer for the Durham Police Department, wrote in an email Monday.
According to a DPD incident report, intruders entered an apartment of three Duke seniors in Partners and stole approximately $8,575 worth of items, including three credit and debit cards, three laptops, a Xbox and a PlayStation 3. The front door of the apartment was unlocked when the burglary occurred.
Senior Trevor Cesar, a resident of the apartment, said he was outside the residence in another section of Partners between 9:35 and 9:55 p.m. Oct. 20. His roommates were with friends in the apartment next door at the time.
Senior Eric Pfisterer said he was the first to return to the apartment at approximately 10 p.m. He found the TV turned on and furniture knocked over. Pfisterer then noticed that the video game consoles and laptops were missing.
“Obviously nobody said it’s our fault and of course we’re partly liable because we left our door unlocked, but we were 10 feet away and only gone for 10 or 15 minutes,” Cesar said. “That’s something that everybody does—it’s a very open culture and safe atmosphere here.”
Partners’ security guard on duty was asleep in his car at the time of the incident, Cesar noted.
“The security company should have a certain standard of safety,” Cesar added. “A lot of focus is on the entry and exit, but the access points are on the sides.”
Pfisterer added that DPD has not followed up with the three students after the incident.
“I had to call to follow up,” he said. “They didn’t take down the specifics of the stuff that was stolen like the laptop serial numbers.”
Officials from Raleigh-based Sunstates Security, the security company at the complex, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Cesar said the response from Partners’ management has been delayed and ineffective. After sending an email to Partners shortly after the incident, Cesar said he did not receive a response until Monday. Representatives from Community Focus of N.C., Inc., Partners’ property management company, told Cesar that it was not liable for the stolen property.
Community Focus handles general property management for the Partners complex, excluding security, said Josh Lindgren, the company’s vice president. Instead, the board of the Homeowners Association of North Carolina hires the security company and monitors their performance.
The owners of Partners decided to enhance security by installing the maximum possible lighting in the public areas of the complex and maintaining a security guard, said Barbara Evans, property manager for Griffin Associates Realtors, the real estate firm at the apartments.
“At other complexes, students complain a lot about the entry gate getting stalled,” Evans said. “Their solution [here] was to shed light in the area and hire security, but there’s no such thing as guaranteed safety.”
Senior Joe Pedevillano, Cesar’s roommate, said he would support the installation of a security gate in light of the recent incident.
“[The intruder(s)] were able to come in so smoothly—we were gone 20 minutes,” Pedevillano said. “They were obviously watching us—that’s not a comforting thought.”
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