Break-in Reported at Wigglesworth Hall

The Harvard University Police Department responded to several break-ins in Wigglesworth Hall on Saturday night, according to an email to students from Crimson Yard Resident Dean Dwight Fee.

Fee wrote that there were “some break-ins and attempted break-ins” in the F and H Entries of Wigglesworth Saturday. He told students to bring any keys “hidden” outside their room inside, to lock their windows, and to make sure their doors were locked at all times.

The Harvard University Police Department is conducting “an ongoing and active investigation” of the break-ins, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote in an email Sunday evening.

Wigglesworth students and proctors in F entryway could not be reached for comment on the incident. It is unknown if items were stolen during the reported break-in.

Burglars and trespassers broke into Wigglesworth as recently as September 2018, when several residents reported that a suspect had climbed through a first floor window during the night and taken students’ laptops, wallets, and phones.

Other freshman dorms and upperclassmen houses have also reported robberies in recent years. Over a single weekend in September 2016, several laptops were taken from Canaday Hall and Stoughton Hall in Harvard Yard as well as Adams House, Mather House and Leverett House along the river.

Last week, HUPD reported that more than $6,000 worth of electronics were stolen from the Dillon Fieldhouse in Allston, home to many varsity sports’ locker rooms, facilities and coaches’ offices.

In 2016, the Undergraduate Council’s Student Life Committee voted unanimously 11-0 in support of installing exterior security cameras outside of residential halls.

Roughly 90 laptops are stolen each year at Harvard University, according to the HUPD website.

—Staff writer Charles Xu can be reached at charles.xu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @charles_xu_27.

—Staff writer Jasper G. Goodman contributed reporting.