Four juveniles and an adult are suspects in a rash of vehicle burglaries over spring break. The ACU Police Department expects to arrest the adult and take the juveniles into custody later this week.
At least 11 vehicles were burglarized on or near campus in one night during the week of spring break, say police. One vehicle parked near Christian Village and 10 others parked around campus were broken into, and items were stolen.
At 5:05 a.m. March 15, ACU Police received a call reporting suspicious activity. A WFF employee who called was working late when he noticed a vehicle driving around the parking lot with no headlights and also reported hearing the sound of glass breaking.
Officer Steve Rogers responded to the report and was able to locate and stop the vehicle on campus. The two juveniles in the vehicle were identified but evidence at the time was not enough to warrant arrest or detainment, Ellison said. During the traffic stop, Rogers also identified another vehicle driving with no headlights but was unable to pursue.
“The officer did good work at locating them, detaining them and identifying them,” said Ellison. “He released them and then through the course of the next day we located the 11 burglaries.”
The next day, Sergeant Thomas Valdez began the investigation. Initial interviews with the two juveniles revealed that three other individuals were involved. Many of the stolen items were also recovered. Only one of the five individuals is considered an adult by law at the age of seventeen and none of the suspects have any affiliation with ACU, Ellison said.
“Based on the information that he gathered from those interviews we believe that we will be moving forward this week with criminal cases against all five of those individuals,” said Ellison. “We were also able to connect all burglaries to those individuals.”
Since the crimes were committed by a group of five individuals, the charges will be increased from a Class A misdemeanor to a felony for engaging in organized criminal activity, Ellison said.
The 11 burglaries make up nearly half of all vehicle burglaries that have occurred on campus during this school year. Ellison said it is unusual to see an incident like this on campus but that it would not be uncommon throughout the city.
“This is a city wide problem,” he said, “but college campuses can be pretty prone to it. We have a private university but a public campus. It is not a gated community. We often say in press releases that we are actually more vulnerable during our holiday breaks. We don’t have 5,000 sets of eyes to report things.”
Ellison attributes the success of the case to the alert WFF employee who reported suspicious activity to the department.
“Anytime someone sees something suspicious they should call it in and report it immediately and let us follow up on it,” Ellison said.
With the upcoming Easter Break, Ellison urges students to park in lit, interior parking lots on campus and to remove valuables from their vehicles.
