Tony Callisto experienced something for the first time during his tenure at Syracuse University while students were away on Winter Break.

‘In the five years I’ve been here, we have always seen burglaries on South Campus,’ said Callisto, chief of the Department of Public Safety.

Although crime happened off campus, not one burglary or attempted burglary on South Campus was reported during this past Winter Break, Callisto said. Increased DPS patrols and cooperation between several SU offices helped to stop crime in the area. Four burglaries had occurred on South Campus while students were off campus for Thanksgiving break in November. 

DPS officials assembled an interdisciplinary team to suppress burglaries on South Campus that included its own department, the Office of Residence Life, the Office of Housing, Meal Plan and I.D. Card Services, FIXit and the university’s Safety Department, which is separate from DPS, Callisto said. As soon as the fall semester ended, ORL did an immediate check of every apartment to make sure doors were locked and rooms were secure, he said.

Following ORL’s apartment check, DPS enhanced patrols to make sure every building was checked by at least one officer every 24 hours during Winter Break.

Crime did happen outside of South Campus, however, as three burglaries, an attempted burglary, an attempted robbery and five larcenies, occurred during break. 

A female student reported being approached by an unknown man on Dec. 29 at the intersection of Euclid and Ackerman avenues at 6:45 p.m., according to a DPS e-mail sent to students. The man demanded money and showed her what appeared to be a black handgun before he fled the area, heading north on Ackerman Avenue toward Thornden Park, according to the e-mail. The student did not report any injury or loss, according to the e-mail.

The e-mail described the suspect as a black male in his mid-20s to early-30s, between 5-feet-9-inches and 5-feet-10-inches tall and of a medium build. He was last seen wearing a black and gray coat, a black winter hat, dark shoes and black jeans, according to the e-mail. Callisto said there are no further details on the attempted robbery, and Syracuse police are investigating it.

An attempted burglary also occurred on campus between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3 on 100 Crouse Drive, according to DPS crime records. Someone tried to break into a first-floor window at Crouse College but never made an entry into the building and never stole any property, Callisto said.

Another burglary occurred at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house on 905 Walnut Ave. between Jan. 6 and Jan. 11, according to DPS crime records. Entry was made through the front door as the suspects broke out a glass panel on the door to get themselves inside the house, Callisto said. They broke interior doors inside the house and stole property out of several bedrooms, he said.

A burglary also occurred on 304 Walnut Place between Dec. 25 and Dec. 26, according to DPS crime records. Someone entered the house through a first-floor window and forced several interior doors open before stealing property from several bedrooms, Callisto said. 

Callisto would not disclose the items missing from the burglaries and said the two burglaries, attempted burglary and attempted robbery, remain open cases. 

The incidents at 304 Walnut Place and at ZBT were the same kind of incident, but DPS does not yet have information on whether or not the two burglaries were related, he said. SPD is investigating the two burglaries because they both happened off campus.

A burglary occurred between Dec. 15 and Dec. 31 at 730 Livingston Ave. and was reported on Jan. 16, according to a Syracuse police report. Arthur Skwarnicki, a senior, returned to Syracuse on Dec. 31 and found two Nintendo Wiis missing from the television stand in the living room, but he did not contact police because he found no sign of forced entry or other missing items, according to the report. When Skwarnicki’s housemate, Marcos Cantos, a junior, returned Sunday and checked his room, he found his Sharp flat-screen TV and an art bag — which had its contents emptied out — missing, according to the report. The losses of the Nintendo Wiis and TV totaled to $450, according to the report. 

SU students did not receive an e-mail from DPS regarding the three burglaries or the attempted burglary during break. Under the Clery Act, DPS must send timely notices to students about a reported crime if it remains a continued threat. 

‘Unless there’s a continuing and ongoing threat to the campus community, we typically are not going to put out messages or alerts,’ Callisto said. ‘The reason for that is if we put up too many of these things, nobody pays any attention to them.’

With students back on campus, Callisto said there will likely be an increase in crime compared to the minimal amount reported during Winter Break.

‘As students return, the opportunity to commit crime increases,’ he said, ‘just because there’s so many more students around.’

jdharr04@syr.edu

Published on January 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu