Sixteen break-and-enters were reported to the Kingston Police Force over Homecoming weekend, with Macbook Pros being the most commonly stolen item. Haley Campbell, who lives on Aberdeen St., had her laptop taken from her room on Saturday night, she said.

“I went out, I didn’t sleep at my house … came back the next morning and … went to look for my laptop and it wasn’t where I remember putting it,” Campbell, Sci ’15, said.

Campbell said that she guarded the front door to ensure random party-goers didn’t stumble into her house on Saturday during the Aberdeen St. party.

She left at around 11 p.m. the same night and Campbell said she noticed the next morning that her 13” Macbook Pro had been stolen.

“Clearly people managed to worm their way in there,” she said.

“I don’t remember seeing anyone in the house.”

Dakota Cook also had her MacBook stolen from her apartment on Elm St., although it happened early Monday morning.

“At 10 a.m. I heard someone walk into the apartment but I just thought that it was one of my roommates … then I heard them leave,” Cook, ArtSci ’15, said.

“The scary part was we were all home when it happened.”

She said she reported the theft to the police force that morning, but they claimed that they could do little to help.

“[I] got a new laptop and the guy at the campus computer store said that probably fifteen people since Frosh Week have come to buy a new laptop because [theirs] were stolen out of their house,” Cook said.

Samantha Hume, ArtSci ’15, also had her MacBook Pro stolen two weekends ago from her home at Johnson St. and Collingwood St.

Hume said the back door was unlocked and was likely the point of entry, but her housemates were asleep during the incident.

Constable Steve Koopman, media relations officer for Kingston Police, said that the break-ins took place between south of Princess St. and north of the waterfront, extending to the Cataraqui River.

“Unfortunately, being part of a resident household where you [live with multiple] people, is that [the thieves feel] comfort about having that many people around because quite often the doors are left unlocked and insecure,” said.

Koopman said that at 2 a.m. on Saturday, a house on the 200 block on Albert St. reported a MacBook Pro, iPad and Nintendo DS stolen. A house on the 300 block on Brock St. also reported a MacBook Pro and Nikon camera stolen that same day.

“We have heard of a Queen’s university student losing a thesis because they had it on their laptop … and their laptop was stolen,” he said.

Koopman said students should back up all information to cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive to prevent the risk of losing valuable information.

He also said students should keep their blinds closed and doors and windows locked.

“It’s not always at night, it can be during the day. [The thieves] are very opportunistic,” he said.

“That’s alarming to a lot of people, that someone would boldly walk into a house knowing that somebody is there.”