Police Nab Jewel Thief In Kirkland House Yard

Harvard police arrested a burglary suspect with $200 worth of jewelry outside Kirkland House A-Entry Monday afternoon.

The suspect apparently entered through the broken door to I-Entry, which is connected to A-Entry by a fourth-floor hallway. Residents said they have not been able to lock the I-Entry door since they moved in. The door has since been fixed.

Harvard Chief of Police Paul Johnson said his force arrested Nathaniel Oliver, of 40 Mill Street in Boston, for the burglary. He said officers had answered a call from Oscar DelaRosa '90 of I-Entry, who said a stranger had entered his common room. Johnson said police stopped Oliver as he left A-Entry because he fit the description given by DelaRosa.

After they stopped Oliver, police found the jewelry, which they later traced to Kirkland resident Cindy M. Ersek '88 through her initials inscribed on a high school ring among the stolen items.

Ersek, who lives on the fourth floor of A-Entry, said she had not yet noticed the theft when the Kirkland House office called her at lunchtime yesterday. She said she identified all of the stolen goods as hers this afternoon.

"It's our fault because we left our door open, we definitely learned a lesson from this," Ersek said.

DelaRosa said he was napping in his third-floor suite at about 4:30 P.M. when he "heard someone come in and move things around in the room."

"I called out because I thought the person was my roommate Steve, but when nobody answered and the noise stopped I realized something was wrong," he said. "When I went out to the common room there was a guy who obviously wasn't a college student standing there. I asked him what hewanted and he said 'Does Robert Stone live here?'When I said `No', he asked for a directory."

DelaRosa said he later learned that Stone, aformer Kirkland I-Entry resident, was robbed twicelast year and that the culprit had never beencaught.

"Except for the fact that he was obviously notcollege-age, he looked normal," DelaRosa said. "Itdidn't occur to me that he was a robber."

After the suspect left the room, DelaRosacalled information to get Stone's number, but wastold that his name was not listed.

"I told the operator what had happened and shesaid to call the police. I called right away andthey were here almost immediately," DelaRosa said.He said that nothing of his was stolen