West Chester University students feel targeted after burglaries, car break-ins near campus

WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Some students at West Chester University are starting the new school year on edge.

It's not because of their course load or first-year jitters, but because of a recent rash of burglaries and car break-ins.

"We just moved in here two weeks ago," said sophomore Philip Uliano. "I'm unsettled because we try to lock our doors every night but that stuff shouldn't happen. We're college students."

West Chester police say they're investigating a handful of incidents that happened over the last week.

They've all happened in a neighborhood near the university, authorities say, and students tell Action News they think they're being targeted.

On Tuesday, police released surveillance video from August 27 of a person of interest.

A man was seen wandering around apartments on the 700 block of South Walnut Street and rummaging through an unlocked white SUV.

Uliano says the SUV belongs to him.

"He just walked right up to my car, opened the passenger door, went in, opened my glovebox, and looked like he was just searching around," Uliano recalled.

He said it appeared nothing was taken, but his neighbor wasn't as lucky.

"When I was in the shower at 3 a.m. someone came in. We had the door unlocked for our roommate to come home and someone came in and stole six purses," said Caitlin Suter, a junior.

Suter says she never encountered the intruder and didn't discover until hours later that her home had been burglarized and she and her roommate's personal items were missing.

"Thank goodness no one got hurt. It sucks that we lost our stuff. We just have to be happy about that I guess, but it's definitely scary and changed how we've done things already," said Suter's roommate, Nikki Kopycienski.

The roommates say the front door now always remains locked, they've purchased plywood to ensure their patio door can't be breached, and they're also working to install a Ring security camera.

On September 1, police released surveillance video of another incident on the same block of Walnut Street.

A few days earlier, on August 29, police shared another video of a possible burglary suspect.

Authorities tell Action News it's still under investigation whether they're looking for one or multiple people.

Students hope an arrest comes soon.

"I've never been in a situation like this before. We're all college students trying to get by and we don't deserve any of that, nobody does," said Uliano.

West Chester police said these seem to be crimes of opportunity and remind everyone to always lock their vehicles and homes.