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Dorm residents plagued by “thieves in the night”

Simina Mistreanu, Claudiu Ludoşan

What’s it like to wake up in the middle of the night with a stranger trying to collect all the mobile phones in your room? Well, this happens often to students living in university dorms in Bucharest.

“We woke up in the morning with all our stuff stolen -- money, cell phones and ID cards. We didn’t hear anything; they’ve probably got in during the night. I found my papers thrown in front of the dorm,” said Alina Mariuţ, a third year student in industrial chemistry who lives in the P1 dormitory of the Regie Campus.

“I made a complaint downstairs, but the administration told me not to call the police because it’s no use. But every night somebody tries the lock,” she added. Money and electronic equipment are not the thieves’ only targets. Sometimes, they are just after food. “Last year, they stole all the food in our fridge. We just found it empty,” said Mariuţ.

Daniel Păuna, a third year chemistry student who lives in the P3 Dormitory has had the same problem. “It was 5 a.m. I was playing on my computer when somebody came in. He was a massive blackish guy with a cap. He saw that I was awake and he just left. My colleagues were sleeping. We were lucky. A friend of mine had his computer stolen,” he said.

Villains often check out the area before striking. They enter rooms, engaging the occupants in conversation, asking them questions, all the time looking around for possible things to steal.

“They do this all the time. Strange looking people enter my room even during the day. One asked me, while looking all around my room, if a certain Cristina lived here. Another one entered asking what time it was. The funniest situation was when a stranger came in and asked for a game of rummy. As if I would play with a stranger,” said Păuna.

Several types of swindlers also target the dorms. Some come disguised as insect exterminators. “There are a lot of people who say they have come to exterminate our bugs. They have all kinds of bottles, all kinds of pretexts to get into the room. I was fooled the first time, I payed 5 RON for a bottle of water and chalk,” said Mariuţ.

Sandu Taraş, a third year student of applied chemistry who also lives in P3, had a similar experience. “They enter your room, start spreading poison and afterwards they ask for money. They don’t say you have to pay from the start so you think it’s for free,” he said.

One Politehnica University official who asked to remain anonymous said students had been warned not to pay any money to these false exterminators. “We have authorized people coming and they are always accompanied by our staff. We put posters at the entrance to announce these visits, so that everybody can be at home,” said the official.

Not all the strangers who come to the dorms have criminal intentions. Some are looking only for shelter; others try to scavenge food from the garbage and some just want a hot shower. “Homeless people come every night and sleep in front of the dorm door. We felt sorry for them and so we gave them food,” said Măriuţ.

“I once got out of the shower and there were about five gypsy children who where waiting their turn to wash. Everybody knows about this, even the administration,” said Monica Copotoiu, a first year student of social work, who lives in the C Leu Dorm.

“Last night a crazy woman slept on the corridor. They don’t disturb us -- well, maybe just the sight of them does,” said Bianca Codroiu, a third year student of electronics and telecommunications, who lives in the A Leu Dorm.

Not all students agree. Some have had uninvited guests disturb them while taking a shower.

“We put a lock on our bathroom door because of the homeless people who were coming to take a shower here. My roommate had an unpleasant episode. She was showering when a man shouting at her door, ‘Mary, Mary.’ Her name is not Mary. She turned around and the man was staring at her from under the door. Then he tried to open the door but she caught his hand and yelled. He yelled too and ran away,” said Corina Radu, a psychology student who lives in the C Leu Dorm.

Elena Coliţă, a second year student at Spiru Haret University who lives in the P21 dorm, had a similar experience. “I was getting out from the toilet when I saw a junkie coming in with a plastic bag. I got scared and ran to my room. After some time I heard someone yelling from the bathroom. It was a colleague from the same floor, who was taking a shower. The junkie tried to get in to the shower too. The boys came and kicked him out of the dorm,” she said.

Mr.Cămăroşoiu, the head of social services responsible for dorms and cafeterias in Regie said a new project to protect students from such intrusions would soon be implemented.

“In two weeks, the project testing will be over and we will put things in motion. The project is based on video camera surveillance throughout the Regie campus and proximity cards for students, so they will enter their dorm based on that. We are also having a fence built in the back of the campus, so everybody will enter through the front gates,” said Cămăroşoiu.

Ultimul număr tipărit (mai 2007, format PDF):