Seven final-year students had their laptops broken, losing dissertation and course work.

On Friday 17th February, a burglary took place at the house of seven final year students on Headingley Mount. The offenders used a crowbar to force entry to the house, which they then used to break into the bedrooms, all of which were locked.

They stole all of the students’ laptops and two rucksacks.

Hannah Brown, a final year Fashion Marketing student who lives in the house, said “They were only after laptops as my friend had a really expensive camera next to her laptop which wasn’t taken so it was clear that this was a made to order job.

“I’d actually hidden my laptop under my bed in a towel in a bag but they still found it. In hindsight I hadn’t hidden my charger so they could see I had a MacBook somewhere so I would say to others that you should definitely remember to hide your charger too.”

Two houses in the same area were also robbed that night, and, after speaking to people in the other houses, Hannah said that they all used XL taxis to get to their nights out.

Hannah said: “The taxi driver was asking us if we were all out and we aren’t an obvious house to rob as we’re right next to a shop with CCTV, the stadium with CCTV and a blocked off road so we feel they were certain we were out and probably told that we were.

“Lots of us have lost some form of work and my friend’s memory stick was in her rucksack which they took too.

“I would say to make sure you back things up somewhere else such as DropBox. You just can’t be too cautious – especially in final year! If they want to take your laptop then they will, so just make sure everything’s backed up and insured then you won’t really have too much to lose.”

The West Yorkshire Police’s Crime Map shows the concentration of burglaries around student areas. The map below displays the number of burglaries reported during December 2016 (the latest available statistics).

Polly Hatcher 

(Image: www.police.uk)