A burglar entered a Claremont McKenna College apartment around midnight on the evening of Friday, Oct. 29 and stole expensive electronics while the residents were sleeping, CMC Associate Dean of Students Jennifer Marana told students in an e-mail over the weekend. The burglar was described as male and approximately 6’1”.
A female resident of the apartment woke up while the burglar was in her room.
“The [burglar] told [the resident] to ‘go back to sleep,’ and he left the room,” Marana wrote. The student followed the burglar and watched him climb out of the living room window and run toward Claremont Boulevard.
“Around the same time that evening, another student observed two males in a red sedan parked on Claremont Boulevard just west of the building in which the burglary took place,” Marana wrote. The student observed the men for five minutes before they noticed the student and drove off. One of the men in the sedan was described as Hispanic with dark hair.
Shahram Ariane, Director of Campus Safety, described the sedan as a “red Pontiac, California license number 4YCG650, with a black stripe on the rear trunk.” He said he has forwarded this information to the Claremont Police Department (CPD), which is investigating the matter.
“We don’t have enough evidence yet to know whether the two [incidents] are related,” he said.
In response to the burglary, there will be heightened security on CMC’s campus, particularly around the apartments.
“We have increased our patrol of the areas and are working closely with the colleges and the CPD and following every lead in the case,” Ariane said.
Pomona Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum responded to the incident by urging students to take safety precautions, such as locking their doors.
In light of the incident and related events this year, including the indecent exposure affair last month and the reports of “career criminals” at the 5Cs, Feldblum indicated that changes in campus security could be on the horizon.
“We are reviewing our security measures around the residence halls,” Feldblum wrote in an e-mail to The Student Life. This review is in process and no results are available yet, she said.
Both Marana and Ariane emphasized the importance of student vigilance in preventing future incidents.
“While we are providing extra security in the apartments and throughout campus, we also ask that students be vigilant about locking their doors and windows,” Marana said. CMC’s facilities office spent most of Monday addressing issues with locking mechanisms in the dorms and apartments, she said.
Ariane also appealed to students to take steps to protect their property.
“We ask that students take reasonable steps to safeguard themselves and their personal property,” he said. “These include securing their dorm rooms and windows, being observant and reporting all suspicious activities, and not leaving personal valuables unattended at the library or the gym, etc.”
Students with information about this incident or other security breaches are encouraged to contact Campus Safety at (909) 607-2000 or the CMC Dean of Students office at (909) 621-8114.