When Austin Grisham, a sophomore organizational leadership major at The University of Memphis, returned home last Wednesday night, he returned to the last sight he expected to see.
The front door of his house, located at 770 Goodman St., had been forced open and the house had been robbed.
"We weren't even gone for that long," Grisham said. "They had to have been watching the house or something."
After making sure that the thieves were gone, Grisham and his roommate called the police and began checking to see what had been stolen. Among the missing items were a PlayStation 3, an Apple laptop computer, a digital camera, an iPod and a change jar.
"It looked like someone just busted in through the door, grabbed whatever they could carry and left," Grisham said.
At first Grisham assumed that he was the victim of another random campus-area burglary. He said, however, that his opinion of that quickly changed after talking to several of his friends.
"I found out that two of my really good friends' houses had recently been broken into, and they had been robbed in the same way as we had," Grisham said.
According to Grisham, his two friends who had been robbed in the same way live merely a street over, one on Graham St. and one on Shotwell St.
"I went and talked to some of the construction workers who are building the bridge over by Graham and Shotwell, and they told me that the police had come by and told them that they believed that many of the break-ins are related, and they even have a description of a suspect," Grisham said. "When I reported my break-in, the police didn't say anything about related robberies or tell me they have a description. I had to go hear it from the construction workers."
Grisham said that if indeed these break-ins are related, he is angry that the police have not posted signs or warned residents of the neighborhood that there have been several related burglaries.
"I would appreciate it if there were regular and frequent patrols and if the police would take time to warn us of a threat," Grisham said.
Ryan Dalton, a sophomore international studies major, is one of Grisham's friends who fell victim to a similar type of burglary.
About two weeks ago on February 25, Dalton returned to his house after visiting a friend up the street to find his door kicked in.
"I was only gone for about 45 minutes or so," said Dalton. "When I got home, I realized that there was wood all over the ground, and our door had been kicked in."
The thieves had stolen several of Dalton's blazers and his PlayStation 2 and his roommate's shotgun, aerosol shotgun and laptop. According to Dalton, the burglars' MO shares eerily similar characteristics with the thieves who broke into Grisham's house.
"It pretty much looked like they had run in, grabbed whatever they could carry and ran out," said Dalton.
Dalton said that he also has several other friends, who live in his neighborhood, that have fallen victim to the same type of burglary.
According to the Memphis Police Department's Web site, there have been 16 residential burglaries in the neighborhood across the railroad tracks from The U of M campus since February 18, with the most recent one being reported March 19.
"I can't believe someone has the audacity to walk up to the door in the middle of the day and kick it in," Grisham said. "I wish the police had warned us."
MPD officials were unable to be reached.
