Police are making headway on the case of laptops lifted from Hewitt about a month ago. From the Middletown Patch:
A 23-year-old city man charged with stealing a laptop from Wesleyan University was advertising it and many others in a Craigslist ad, police say. Christopher Aresco, 23, of Aresco Drive, was discovered with five other Macbooks, according to Middletown Police, who have been investigating a recent rash of student computer thefts.
Police arranged a set-up at the McDonalds on Washington Street that led to the man’s arrest. The MacBook Pro Aresco attempted to sell the officer matched the serial number of a laptop taken from Freeman Athletic Center on September 20th.
But what about the missing Hewitt laptops?
After officers searched his bedroom, they found five more laptops that matched the description of those stolen from Wesleyan, which Aresco told police he bought from a person, “and didn’t feel good about these,” the report indicates.
While Aresco has been charged with the theft of the Freeman laptop, police are still verifying whether the found laptops are indeed connected to the October 8th Hewitt thefts.
[Aresco] was charged with fourth-degree larceny, released on an $1,150 non-surety bond and is due back in court on Nov. 2.
Citizens and Patch-readers are talking back, and they’re latching on to the truly fishy details of this incident:
But beyond the semi-humorous fact that the suspect lives on a street with his own last name, it’s important to note where he lives in relation to the university (see map above). One doesn’t just happen to walk past campus if ze lives a mile away; it’s a pretty deliberate action to enter a residence hall on a Friday night when one knows that students are out and about and rooms are empty.
As we’ve been reminded repeatedly over the last few weeks, we live on an open campus. Not everyone you pass on your way to class is your peer. While other kinds of crimes get undoubtedly more media attention, larceny (what Aresco was charged with) is still the third most prevalent crime on campus behind liquor and drug referrals, and infinitely easier to prevent.
Lock your windows and doors. Download free software recovery software. Enjoy this peculiar report about a taser-resistant campus intruder from last summer. Be smart, kiddos.