Five car break-ins in 13 hours 'certainly related,' police say

Police reports stated the items were stolen between 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and noon Wednesday from five vehicles in a parking lot north of the sorority houses of Kappa Kappa Gamma, 1435 E. Second St., and Delta Delta Delta, 1541 E. Second St.

UAPD Detective Sgt. Sal Celi said the break-ins are "certainly related" and could have been executed by more than one person.

According to police reports, the items stolen from the vehicles were a Sony detachable face AM/FM cassette player, a Kenwood detachable face AM/FM compact disc stereo, an Alpine six-disc CD player, a Panasonic AM/FM CD player and a Sony Sports Walkman. There were no signs of forced entry on any of the vehicles.

The Walkman and the Kenwood stereo had a total value of $475. The values of the other items were unknown.

Fingerprints were recovered from two of the vehicles, police reports stated. Reports also stated that on one of the vehicles, police recovered nine fingerprints.

Celi said UAPD fingerprinting samples are sent to the Arizona Automated Fingerprint Identification System and it takes three to six months for results.

"We have a lot of confidence of at least identifying someone who is involved," Celi said. However, he said that if the recovered fingerprints are not of the best quality, police may not get the information they need to further investigate the case.

Celi said people should take their valuables with them or hide their valuables when they park their vehicles. He said, if possible, people should park by parking lot lights.

"It is such a simple thing to do," he said.