In September, nine incidents of theft on university property in the area of Sölvegatan have been reported. Just like the incidents at the biology union, the targets were laptops.
The cases are similar: someone enters through the window at night. In one case, a drain cover has been hurled through the window pane, on the second occasion it had been pried open. With them, the thief makes off with one or several laptops. The police judge that all this is undertaken in and around a minute.
The location is the area around Sölvegatan and Ideon, the same area of Lund as the biologists premises.
“It’s an at risk area just now”, says Stephen Söderholm of the Lund Police constabulary.
“Since the beginning of autumn, we have had two or three break-ins per week. Several on university property.”
Nine incidents of theft on university property have been reported between the 7th and 15th September, several in the vicinity of Sölvegatan. The Ecology building being the worst hit, with three thefts in two weeks.
On the 3rd October a similar break-in occurred, this time aimed at the astronomy buildings. The police have no suspects, but believe that the same person is behind several of these thefts.
Per Gustafsson, head of security at Lund University states that these thefts are of the “smash and grab” type. Also berating the security and stating that the best way to go is to work on prevention and taking higher precautions when it comes to security.
“In light of the recent incidents, questions have been raised on security in university buildings, and what the bare accepted minimum should be.”
“In several cases we have witness reports which match. At some of the locations, we have found fingerprints and bloodstains after the persons had cut themselves on the broken glass,” says Stephan Söderholm.
The police have now increased their presence in the area in and around Sölvegatan and have prioritised nighttime patrols there.
Why is just this area affected?
“This is an area where we have a lot of office buildings and it’s easy to make a quick entry. If you are successful, you want to continue,” states Stephan Söderholm.
Text: Ida Ölmedal
Translation: Jens Hansen
