At least three Medford houses rented by Tufts students were burglarized over the winter holiday, and both the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) and the Medford Police Department (MPD) suspect the crimes may have been drug-instigated.
According to Lt. Paul Cavino, the public information officer of the MPD, in January alone there have been 20 break-ins all over the city while the monthly average has usually been zero to five.
Cavino believes that this may be due to both a downward trend in the national economy and the increased presence of drugs in the city. According to him, use of heroin and OxyContin, the narcotic drug approved for the treatment of moderate to severe pain, has risen noticeably in Medford during recent months.
"Users can't go long without them and can't afford OxyContin so they steal for it. Soon they're on heroin and at that point they'll do anything," he said.
According to Cavino, in this area, one milligram of OxyContin costs about one dollar and the average-sized pill being sold on the street is 80 milligrams, making each such pill total cost about $80. Heroin, on the other hand, is much cheaper, selling at about six dollars for a one-shot bag.
Detective Lt. Charles Lonero of the TUPD agrees with Cavino's assessment. "It's quite possible that most of these housebreaks and robberies are drug-related," he said.
According to Cavino, heroin and OxyContin are "definitely a campus problem too."
He said that the TUPD has informed the MPD that they suspect a "couple" of Tufts students of dealing OxyContin.
Lonero said that the TUPD has undercover police officers working and that they caught someone breaking into Paige Hall last Friday night at 5 p.m.
"The person was arrested and found to have an extensive record but we do not know if the person is related to the breaks in homes," he said.
None of the burglary crime scenes are exactly the same, Lonero said. "Access entries have been different and show that different people may behind all this. We have several suspects."
According to him, the three off-campus houses occupied by Tufts students that were burglarized over the winter recess were all located in Medford on Capen Street, Boston Avenue and Emery Street.
The burglaries at Capen and Boston, under the jurisdiction of the MPD, were confirmed by Cavino. At press time, he did not find records to confirm a burglary on Emery.
MPD's records show that 351 Boston Avenue was broken into sometime between Jan. 6 and 14 and that it took place at night. A window that was "possibly unlocked" was found with its screen cut and is suspected to have been the perpetrator's mode of entry. The three victims reported U.S. currency as missing.
Resident and Tufts senior Susannah Jabaily says that her laptop, valued at $1,700, was also stolen from her room.
"It was not a bad break-in in the sense that things were not really thrown around," senior Isabel Alonso, also a resident, said. "They took her laptop and my money and left."
Since the burglary, Alonso says their landlord has helped with money and has installed new locks all over the house.
Official records show that 25 Capen Street was broken into on Jan. 16 sometime between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. while the residents were out. The point of entry appears to have been the front door and a 46-inch television, a laptop, and $400 in U.S. currency were filed as missing.
Upstairs resident Dan Hake, a graduate student in the Engineering School, later discovered an X-Box system and a Playstation2 system missing from his apartment.
According to junior Jolanta Griffiths, who lives on the first floor, their landlord has also put new locks on their front doors and the door that opens into their porch and installed deadbolts inside.
Additionally, computerized keys have been given to all residents of the house so that if one tenant loses his or her key all the others have to change theirs as well.
According to Alonso, MPD officers asked her if friends could have stolen her money. Though she does not believe so, she said a Tufts student "looking for a quick fix" could potentially be responsible for the burglary at her house.
Alonso's housemate Jabaily noted that the robbery was especially "clean" and that the perpetrators knew to take her Ethernet and USB cords with them but left her DVD collection untouched.
Hake felt the same about the robbery at his home.
"The people were able to take a 46-inch TV out of our front door; we feel it was someone who knew it was there - maybe a delivery guy or someone who saw it from the window," he said. "It seems somewhat calculated - they knew no one was there on Sunday [Jan. 16]."
According to Cavino, college students sometimes put themselves at risk by inviting acquaintances over to their homes.
"Students are prone to having other young adults over, and there's a good chance that there's someone in that crowd you don't know that well," he said. "They now know the layout of your house, they know what's in there, and they know when you'll be in class."
Hake, who studied at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore as an undergraduate, said that at his alma mater, "you see people who look like bums, etc., but here it's not as apparent as you expect it so people are lazy with safety. People should make sure they have secure locks and windows and talk to their landlords."
Drug problems are everywhere, Cavino says. "From the smallest town in the world to the largest, there they are."
