HUPD Detectives Respond to Surge in Thefts With Little Success

During a late night study session in a common room of Winthrop House last semester, Emma S. de Jong ’26 returned from the bathroom to find her laptop, iPad, backpack and family rings missing from the table where she left them.

The Harvard University Police Department was quick to respond. Soon, de Jong was in a police car, tracking her laptop’s location on her phone alongside an officer. As the pair drove behind Pennypacker Hall, they matched her item’s location to a woman walking alone on the sidewalk.

“There’s no one else on the street but this one woman who is carrying massive bags,” she said. “Immediately I think, ‘Okay, I’m going to get all of my things back right now, this is perfect.’”

But the officer with de Jong was unable to search the woman, who was uncooperative, without probable cause. He took de Jong’s information, gave her a case number, and told her an HUPD detective would be in touch.

Then she waited for ten days.

By the time a detective contacted her about opening an investigation, she had gone abroad for the summer and felt the chances of recovering her belongings were slim. Her second contact with the detective came in mid-June, where he informed her that the case was closed.

De Jong’s experience is not unique. In interviews, more than a dozen students whose belongings have been stolen said that HUPD’s efforts to investigate the thefts and identify a perpetrator proved fruitless.

In many cases, they said, they would go long stretches without a follow-up from their detective, leaving them without thousands of dollars worth of personal items — and without any answers.

In an email, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote that HUPD is “focusing time and attention on clusters of motor vehicle and bicycle thefts on-campus,” adding that HUPD actively investigates all reports of bicycle and motor vehicle thefts on campus.

He encouraged students to keep their doors and windows locked, and use two locks to secure their scooters or bikes.

De Jong said her experience left her “really disappointed, and honestly disheartened.”

“The follow up just didn’t feel thorough, and sometimes it didn’t feel like it was taken seriously,” she added.

‘Out of Our Jurisdiction’

For incidents where individuals steal electronics, bags, or other valuables from dorms or buildings, HUPD was able to close multiple investigations, pressing charges in some instances.

After investigating a series of thefts of backpacks, drones and scooters from the Dillon Field House in fall 2023, for instance, HUPD ultimately filed complaints against at least four individuals in their early 20s.

But other students whose dorms were stolen from said HUPD was less effective in helping them locate their belongings.

When Sami E. Turner ’25 was a sophomore, an individual entered her Dewolfe common room and stole her and her roommates’ devices while they were away from the dorm.

“We lost, like, thousands of dollars worth of stuff,” said Turner, a Crimson Design chair. “We then called HUPD — and they came and they filed a report — but there wasn’t really anything after that.”

Turner said that despite having the location of her roommate’s laptop on their Find My app – a resource recommended by HUPD — the department told her the incident was “out of our jurisdiction.”

Manav Bansal ’25 recounted a similar experience as a freshman: early one morning, he was woken up by HUPD officers at his door and told that his dorm had likely been entered.

Someone had opened a common room window, which turned out to have faulty locks, and stolen his laptop, iPad, AirPods, and his roommate’s Playstation.

“It was a little bit of a shock to me,” he said. “I’ll just say the campus police weren’t very helpful or kind.”

HUPD redirected Bansal to the Cambridge Police Department, and the perpetrator was never found. Despite the faulty window lock, Bansal said he received little support, financial or otherwise, from Harvard and the HUPD, adding it “was a huge economic and psychological burden on me.”

‘Accommodating, But Not That Efficient.’

Student complaints about HUPD come as Harvard’s campus has seen elevated levels of theft — especially involving scooters. According to HUPD logs, in the first week of school alone, there were an average of three scooter thefts per day. All were secured with locks.

Most of these cases end unceremoniously, with Catalano writing that only two motor vehicle thefts resulted in HUPD pressing criminal charges against a perpetrator in 2024. HUPD categorizes scooters as “motor vehicles” in their logs.

While there may be cases in which students are able to retrieve their items and opt not to press charges, interviews with students suggested a pattern of HUPD detectives failing to help students get their scooters back in the first place.

When Katherrin A. Billordo ’26 exited her Mather dorm earlier this month, she was greeted by pieces of her chain lock littered on the concrete. After calling HUPD, an officer arrived and reviewed the basic facts of the case, before advising her to keep her scooter inside — although it’s against University policy.

Over a week later, Billordo has yet to hear back from a detective.

“I'm a little upset, but like, I don't blame them, right?” she said. “Because I feel like that's pretty low on their list of priorities.”

Catalano wrote in a statement that HUPD “actively investigates any and all crimes on-campus, focusing efforts on incidents that have high solvability rates.”

Jacklynn Okereke ’26, who has had two scooters stolen, said HUPD “never followed up” on her case.

“If there’s a set time frame where they don’t find your scooter or anything, they should at least tell you that they didn't find anything,” she said. “It’s better than just wondering, and then finally giving up after a month.”

However, Khoi A. Nguyen ’26 said he found the detectives “very friendly, helpful” when his Razor scooter was stolen two years ago from inside Winthrop.

“I thought they wouldn’t care given it’s a scooter, 70 bucks — that they would ignore it,” Nguyen said. “They actually tried to follow up with me multiple times about the case of my scooter.”

Still, he was never able to recover the scooter.

Several students said additional security cameras on campus would help prevent or solve scooter thefts at higher rates.

“I feel like that’s very logical,” Billordo said. “If there’s three scooters stolen from Mather in one week, I would assume that’s cause for more surveillance.”

“It would have been nice if there were security cameras in that part of the Yard, especially if scooter theft is like a common crime on campus,” said Julia L. Dong ’27, whose scooter was stolen outside of Harvard Hall earlier this month.

The Cambridge City Council recently approved a pilot program to install surveillance cameras in Central Square — a proposal which could expand into Harvard Square. Cambridge Police Department spokesperson Robert Goulston wrote that Harvard would have access to the security footage through the public records request process.

Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain did not respond to a request for comment on the University’s policy on security cameras.

Catalano, in his email, declined to share specifics about how HUPD detectives operate or respond directly to students’ concerns that their belongings are — by and large — going unrecovered.

And students, faced with unsolved investigations, feel left in the dust.

De Jong said she felt that the officer she worked with on the night her items were stolen was “very accommodating, but not that efficient.”

“The situation the night before was completely in their hands,” de Jong said. “I could have gotten all my things back, and it wasn’t possible — and certainly no longer possible after waiting a week for the case to be opened.”

—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards can be reached at sally.edwards@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sallyedwards04 or on Threads @sally_edwards06.

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @asherjmont or on Threads @asher_montgomery.