An unusual string of shoe thefts at Schilletter Village that began last May and have continued this semester won’t be a case for the average gumshoe to solve.

ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said the ISU Police have taken six unsolved reports of shoe theft from Schilletter Village since May. The first two reports were filed May 24.

Two additional Schilletter Village residences reported stolen shoes Monday.

“After a theft, people feel that their space has been invaded,” Deisinger said.

Residents of Schilletter Village who had their shoes stolen said they felt disappointed by the thefts.

Sun-Ah Lee, 58D Schilletter Village, returned home after attending church services in Ankeny last spring. She placed her sandals at the door before she entered, a common practice for her and her husband, Woo-Suk Chang.

She greeted her husband, and they decided to run an errand.

Before the couple left, they noticed the footwear she had placed near the doorway had disappeared.

“It’s really disappointing,” said Chang, graduate student in microbiology.

Chang reported the theft of a pair of sandals to the ISU Police Department and began talking to his neighbors.

“My wife’s friend lost a pair of sandals, too,” Chang said.

Just down the road at Schilletter Village, at building 19D, another report was filed with ISU Police.

“We would always put our shoes and sandals on the door mat,” said Hsueh-Hua Chuang.

One day she found the insoles of her shoes were missing, Chuang said. Her neighbors had also complained about new and old shoes they owned that were stolen or vandalized.

“It could feel really uncomfortable,” she said. “What do they want the shoes for?”

After talking with her neighbors, Chuang decided to call ISU Police.

“If it only happened to me, then I wouldn’t report it,” she said. “But it was the whole neighborhood.”

The ISU Police said they have dealt with a similar crime in the past.

Roughly four years ago, there was a similar incident in the Ames community.

Rusty Sills, a Des Moines resident at the time, was arrested for stealing shoes from the same neighborhood, Deisinger said.

He said Sills had a fetish for shoes, which caused him to steal footwear.

“It’s premature to say that’s the case [here],” Deisinger said. He said the ISU Police have suspects they would like to speak with in connection with the recent thefts.

Until then, Chang and his family have decided to keep their shoes inside their apartment.