A string of burglaries hit multiple dorms in Sterling Quad yesterday afternoon. The alleged assailants pried open the doors to students’ rooms and made off with several laptops among other items.

At least six rooms in Potter, Schiff and Adams were broken into. The thieves stole multiple laptops, an iPod and a digital camera, most of which were reportedly recovered after campus police pursued the suspects to Granada.

Stanford police were unavailable for comment at press time.

The robberies occurred in quick succession sometime between 1 and 2:30 p.m. The main target of the assailants was the students’ laptops — they stole every laptop they encountered, while other items of value in the students’ rooms were ignored.

“My roommate had taken [her laptop] to class, thankfully,” said Potter resident Maya Choksi ‘10, whose laptop was stolen. “My jewelry was also out on my desk but they didn’t take it. It looks like it was just laptops that they were after.”

Following her discovery that she had been robbed, Choksi and her friends, including one whose laptop was also stolen, waited on the first floor of Potter for police to arrive. However, officers available at the time were busy responding to a tip that the assailants were passing through West Lag.

Stephanie Sy ‘11, a resident of Schiff, lives in one of four side-by-side rooms that were broken into and burglarized. Her laptop was taken, as well as her digital camera. But when officers arrived at the scene, she was informed that a camera bag matching her description had been recovered along with other items — including at least one laptop — near Granada.

According to Sy, she and her four dorm mates had no reason to suspect that there was a significant risk of their property being stolen when they left for class and that their laptops “were just on desks, open.”

Similarly, Choksi stated that she did not feel that there was anyone or anything unusual in the dorm when she left her room. She did, however, claim that she had noticed several strange individuals around the dorm in the days preceding the robbery but said that the episodes had not concerned her because many strangers had been in and out of Potter in recent weeks to deal with the plumbing problems.

She added that the unlocked doorways linking Sterling Quad dorms would make a multiple burglary spree like this one easier than it would be in other residences.

“It’s pretty easy to get into the [Sterling Quad] dorms,” she said. “Once you get into one of them, they all connect.”

Following the break-ins, repairmen were called to the scene to immediately repair the doors and locks of the burgled rooms, many of which had been significantly damaged upon forced entry. Student Housing officials cautioned the rest of the Sterling Quad student community to take extra precaution against break-ins, including keeping doors locked and refusing to allow strangers into dorms.