University police arrested a man in Morse College Tuesday they say is responsible for four burglaries from students’ rooms in the past week.
Donald Daluz, 31, of Hamden was arrested for burglaries in Morse and Davenport College Tuesday morning and burglaries at Davenport and Ezra Stiles College committed earlier in the week. Yale Police Chief James Perrotti said Daluz has been arrested at Yale several times before.
“He is someone we’re quite familiar with,” Perrotti said. “He is an opportunistic type thief.”
Police received a call at 9:22 a.m. Tuesday from a Davenport student, who said he had confronted a man going through the pockets of his pants in his dorm room. The man ran out, but the student gave police a description, Perrotti said.
At 10:05 a.m., police received a complaint of a suspicious man wandering the halls in Morse, Perrotti said. Police arrived and arrested Daluz, who they say had entered a student’s room in Morse.
Upon questioning by Yale police detectives, Daluz was also arrested for burglaries on April 5 in Stiles and on April 2 in Davenport.
Police arrested Daluz on four counts of burglary in the third degree. Daluz also faces two counts of larceny in the sixth degree and two counts of attempted larceny in the sixth degree, Perrotti said.
All the rooms entered in the burglaries were unlocked, Perrotti said.
“Do what you can and lock your doors,” he said. “Don’t make it easy for them. That’s why they’re coming back.”
Daluz remains in police custody, Perrotti said.
Lily Oliver ’06, who lives in the Davenport suite entered on April 2, said she was relieved when she heard of the arrest. Oliver said she was asleep in her bedroom while the burglary took place.
“It was definitely scary when I woke up to hear from my suitemate that someone had been in my room,” Oliver said.
Only cash was taken from the common room, she said.
Oliver’s suitemate, who did not want her name used, said she woke up at 7:45 a.m. on April 2 to work on a project and heard someone in her common room. When she opened her bedroom door, she said she saw a man run out of the room and down the entryway stairs.
“If you leave your entryway propped open and your suite door unlocked, this was bound to happen,” she said. “I guess it was a wake-up call.”
Davenport students received an e-mail April 2 from Davenport Master Richard Schottenfeld informing them of the burglary that day and another theft in a student’s room a week before. Jeb Remus ’06 and his suitemates lost computers, iPods, backpacks, digital cameras, and other items in an incident on March 26.
Though Daluz was not arrested for the March burglary, Remus said he was glad arrests had been made for other thefts in Davenport.
“I’m happy that everyone else’s stuff is somewhat safer,” Remus said.