Police were called to Row self-op 680 Lomita in response to a burglary on Saturday evening. According to Frank Lou ’19, foreign currency and four watches — worth around $1500 in total — were stolen from his room on the first floor between 5 and 6 p.m., while he was at the gym.
The perpetrator remains at large.
Police arrived at the scene around 7 p.m. to take fingerprints and question Lou and his neighbors, none of whom had seen the burglary occur.
Lou told The Daily he returned to his room to find his door locked, even though he hadn’t locked it. Inside he found dirt around his window, which had been left wide open; the window screen was bent and on the floor. Lou then realized that his watches and money were missing.
The watches were given to him as gifts, and the money was from a recent trip abroad.
“My collection was comprised of mostly gifts to me from friends and family, and that [loss] hurts more than the money,” Lou said.
He said he called the police, his roommate and his parents after realizing the items had been stolen. Although the police took fingerprints, Lou does not expect to get the lost items back, saying he knows “basically nothing” about the culprit at this point.
“This could happen to anybody,” Lou said. “I was only gone for an hour — that’s not that much time.”
He added that, according to the police, break-ins occur more frequently during breaks from school, and “untraceable” items of “high value” — such as watches and money — are more likely to be stolen than technology such as phones or laptops.
“When people aren’t around, other people take advantage of that fact,” Lou said. “The lesson is, everyone should lock their windows and doors at all times, just to be safe.”
The Daily has reached out to the University for comment and will update this report pending a response.
This article has been updated to include the monetary value of the items stolen. The article has also been updated to note that Lou’s room is on the first floor of 680 Lomita.
Contact Erin Woo at erinkwoo ‘at’ stanford.edu and Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu.