In an uncharacteristically violent burglary late Tuesday night, a Madison man was struck on the head with a baseball bat by a burglar who escaped with a laptop and a video game system.
According to a Madison Police report, the front door of the apartment on the 500 block of West Washington Street was left unlocked. The report said the 23 year-old victim woke up as the burglar was attempting to steal a video game system from inside his bedroom.
MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said after the victim woke, the burglar struck the man a couple of times with a baseball bat that he found inside the apartment. The victim reacted by punching the suspect’s face. The thief then fled the scene.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and was treated for head cuts, the report said.
“In this case we have a criminal who’s opportunistic and was looking for open doors,” DeSpain said. “However, it’s pretty atypical that someone would be injured.”
Often when a burglar is inside the residence and someone wakes up, the burglar would immediately flee, DeSpain said. He said this burglary was unusual because of the injury and the suspect did not enter armed but instead found the baseball bat inside the apartment.
DeSpain said the victim was not a student at the University of Wisconsin. However, he said a number of downtown burglaries do occur and it is not uncommon for a burglar to prey on off-campus student housing.
Other than the commonly heard precaution to “keep your doors locked”, DeSpain said students should also try to keep valuables out of plain sight. He said students could also act as the eyes and ears of their neighbors by being wary of any suspicious persons they don’t recognize.
DeSpain said he acknowledges noticing unfamiliar persons tends to be more difficult in the downtown and campus area because of the high turnover rates for tenants. However, he said students should call the police right away if they see someone they don’t know acting suspicious.
A description of the suspect, who is still at large, was not available.
