Frank Denney, senior in advertising, left his house on Hayward Avenue for less than a day and returned to find it had been broken into.

The house was broken into and robbed on Dec. 30, after Denney had left for just 22 hours.

“I was there the day before it got broken into until about 5 p.m.,” said Denney. “I left at 5 p.m. and came back up the next day at 3 p.m., and our door was open. All the doors had been locked.”

Denney then realized that he and his roommates had been robbed.

“Right when I walked into the living room, I noticed there was a computer that was in our living room stolen,” he said.

Denney, who lives at the house with two roommates, Brad Horan, senior in communication studies, and Nick Paulson, senior in journalism and mass communication, said he was immediately in contact with the other members of the house.

“I was talking to Brad when I walked in,” Denney said. “I called the police right after I hung up with Brad.”

Denney said it took the police about a half hour to an hour to arrive at the house.

“Apparently they had been pretty busy,” Denney said.

Horan, who was visiting his girlfriend in northwest Iowa during the time of the break in, said that, when Denney spoke to him, he seemed to still be “in a panic.”

“He pretty much called me right after he came to the house, and the door was still wide open,” Horan said.

Of all the members of the house, Horan believes he had the most items taken. He said most of them were rather small.

“I had a computer taken, speakers, a couple shirts, a leather jacket, a bunch of random small things, [such as] a tool kit and movies,” he said.

Ames Police Cmdr. Jim Robinson said that, according to the crime report, approximately $4,000 in electronics and miscellaneous items were stolen.

Although the incident was a blow to Denney, Horan and Paulson, Robinson said crimes like this are common throughout the year and don’t necessarily increase over winter break.

“We’ll have burglaries ongoing throughout the year,” Robinson said. “During a long break, it is not out of the ordinary to have thefts reported after students come back from the break.”

Since the incident, Denney and Horan said the police have had few leads in the case.

“[The officer] called me twice asking me if I had any contact with two people that they had suspicion of,” Denney said. “We haven’t had any idea who they are.”

Although Horan said the police initially thought the suspect was actually in contact with the roommates, Horan does not believe that any of them know who committed the crime.

“I know the cops said there were quite a few other cases. They [the police] were really under the impression that we knew the person,” Horan said. “I wouldn’t think any of our friends would do that.”

Denney cautioned other students to be aware of the privacy of their Facebook accounts and take extra steps to try to deter a break-in while they are away.

“I thought about it afterwards, [and] my advice would be to maybe leave a light on somewhere,” Denney said. “Of course, lock all the doors.”

Robinson also said giving the residence a “lived-in look” could help deter theft, as well as having someone in the area look after it.

“It would be great if they had someone around to keep an extra eye on the place. Give it that lived-in look. You want to make sure you don’t have newspapers building up to the doorstep,” Robinson said.

Horan said there is little that can be done to prevent break-ins if someone really wants to get into a home.

“Bring everything with you because, if they want to get in, they are going to be able to get in. I wish I would have taken my computer,” he said.