CREDIT: MELISSA NOVACASKA
With the holidays just around the corner and a recent break-in on Thurman Circle, students are being warned to take caution and lock their doors.

With the holidays coming around the corner and students going home, the fear of student break-ins are not uncommon.

Recently, students who lived on Thurman Circle were being warned about strangers entering houses, causing a lot of concern.

Jesse Welch, a second year music industries arts student, is familiar with this and personally experienced a recent break in.

Welch was home alone one Saturday evening while his roommates had gone out to the bar. Welch said he was getting ready for bed and was half asleep at about 1 a.m. and had his headphones on, meaning he could only hear slight noises.

Welch did hear a slight thump at one point, which he assumed was his roommate coming home and falling, but to his surprise, he kept on hearing more noise, until the culprit booted down his bedroom door.

“I kind of freaked out and threw my headphones off. My first thought was not that someone was trying to break in, it was that I thought that someone was drunk and booting my door to [jokingly] freak me out,” he said. “I was about to yell at them and then the door booted in and there was this guy and we made eye contact”.

Though nothing was stolen, damage was done to the house. Welch said he creeped to the door and learned that the person had left. He was trying to put together the pieces and called the police.

However, Welch said it did take a while before the police arrived.

“I guess it wasn’t violent but booting in doors is kind of violent,” Welch said. “I saw that the back door was wide open and my back gate was open, I didn’t go check that until the cops showed up.”

Welch said this is the second time his home has been broken into this year. The first time a window was taken off and the culprit came into the house that way, but was scared off when they heard movement.

Welch, and his four other roommates didn’t even realize their place had been broken into until the following day.

“The window was completely off, [and] that is when we armed our house with alarms. This happened to be the one time the alarm was shut off and the door was unlocked, so it kind of makes me think that they check every now and then on our house,” Welch said.

Welch said for this second break-in, he believes the culprit might have been watching their place and once his roommates had left the house to go out, they must have assumed no one else was home.

“You always have to be alert, if you are going to go hardcore in protecting and arming your place try not to slip up like we did,” Welch said. “I was paranoid the next day and was walking around with a hammer.”

According Sandasha Bough, media officer for the London Police Service, there are tips on the London Police website under the crime prevention section that will help keep one’s place safe. Crime prevention officers can come to your place and do a security audit of your house and can help people know if their place is safe from all angles, including lighting and making sure trees in front of the house are not covering the front door, for example.

“If you are a student and you are leaving for that period of time just make sure someone is looking after the house and don’t advertise that you are gone for the Christmas break,” Bough said.

Bough said students should always make sure lights are left on and nothing valuable is left near the front windows, making sure the curtains are closed and both front and back doors are closed.

Bough said while you can’t prevent what people do outside, if someone looks suspicious, calling the police is key.

According to Bough, some people think they cannot call the police unless a crime has been committed, however under certain cases, the police can try and stop by and check to see what it going on.

One thing Bough reinforced was the need to be aware of all of your surroundings to keep everyone safe.

“If ever something seems suspicious or out of the ordinary feel free to give us a call, help your neighbours out, if you see somebody who is in their yard or on their property who you know shouldn’t be there, make sure you let them know and you notify police as well and just make sure you keep your doors and windows locked at all times,” Bough said.