A resident on the 500 block of West Mifflin Street woke to the sound of a burglar breaking into his residence early Wednesday morning.
The two 21-year-old victims, one male and one female, were asleep in their home when one of them woke up to the sounds of a window being open, a Madison Police Department incident report said. He turned on the lights, which the report said scared off the burglar. The resident then saw a man with a backpack fleeing down the street.
MPD officers detained a 24-year-old homeless man, but MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said, police did not have probable cause to arrest the suspect, although he was found close to the area and was sweating. DeSpain said no items were stolen from the residence.
He said this burglary was similar to another string of residential burglaries that occurred on the 500 block of West Mifflin Street last week, along with a string of similar crimes in the campus area.
“We’ve got a number of off campus and residential burglaries and we believe the same perpetrators commit the crimes,” DeSpain said. “We have strong reason to believe whoever entered this home has done it before.”
Many of these burglars are opportunistic and look for unlocked windows or doors to enter the homes, he said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said students and downtown residents need to lock their doors and windows to deny the burglars the opportunity to enter.
Verveer said city code requires all doors and windows to have functioning locks. First floor windows are also required to have vent locks that prevent windows from being completely opened, Verveer said. He said tenants should speak with their landlords if they do not believe their locks are up to code.
The trend in residential burglaries where the suspects are “brazen” enough to enter while victims are sleeping is also concerning, Verveer said, although in these cases it often means the burglar does not intend to harm the victims.
“It is just the latest series of burglaries in Mifflin and other neighborhoods, it really is a disturbing trend that is still continuing,” Verveer said.
