Five houses near the University of Minnesota campus were burglarized over Thanksgiving break, according to Minneapolis police reports.

Two neighboring houses on Weeks Avenue Southeast in the Southeast Como neighborhood and a house on Ninth Avenue Southeast in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood were broken into over the break. Two other Marcy-Holmes houses were burglarized over the weekend.

âÄúItâÄôs a little unsettling and kind of violating that they came into our space,âÄù said Elizabeth Barmore, whose house was burglarized Monday morning while her roommates slept.

Between 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m., someone entered the house on Eighth Street Southeast and stole two brand new laptops, two wallets and a car using the keys found inside the house.

âÄúRight now all we can do is hope it can be found,âÄù Barmore said. âÄúWeâÄôre using our serial numbers for the items that were lost, and the police are looking for the car.âÄù

Barmore said she thinks the suspect entered the house using a spare key that was kept on the back porch. She said she doesnâÄôt think the holiday contributed to the theft, since most of her roommates were home at the time of the incident.

But Callie Rose said she thinks the holiday did contribute to the burglary of her and her neighborâÄôs houses on Weeks Avenue.

She said only one of her roommates was home on the night before Thanksgiving when someone broke into their home through an open window.

Rose said her roommate was watching a movie in her room with the door locked when she noticed the motion sensor go off outside. Rose said her roommate heard someone try to open her door and someone shuffling around upstairs, but assumed it was another roommate coming home from the bars.

RoseâÄôs room had been left open and more than $550 in cash was taken from her desk. Nothing else was taken.

âÄúWeâÄôre kind of creeped out,âÄù Rose said.

The roommates have started locking their bedroom doors and windows, something they hadnâÄôt done in the past.

Rose said the recent uptick in crime in the area has made her weary of the neighborhood.

âÄúI used to live a block away from this house, and we didnâÄôt have any issues at all,âÄù Rose said. âÄúNow weâÄôre terrified, so weâÄôre definitely planning on getting out of here.âÄù

Cars broken into, little taken

The windows of at least five cars were smashed in an underground garage near campus early Monday.

An unknown suspect broke into the cars in the garage of the apartment complex at 1004 Seventh St. SE between 1:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and moved the contents in the cars around but took only small items, according to a Minneapolis police report.

Ryan Feeney, who graduated from the University last year, said he parked his car in the garage when he returned from Thanksgiving break Sunday. His roommate Kyle Borchardt had gone out to get food and returned around 9:15 p.m.

The next morning, Feeney said he found the window smashed and the contents of his car scattered. But the only thing missing was a single bottle from his case of Wisconsin craft beer. His GPS sat untouched on his dashboard.

Borchardt, who also graduated from the University last year, reported a similar instance to police âÄî the contents of his car, which was in the same garage, were scattered with items moved from his trunk to his back seat. The only thing missing was about $3 in change. His GPS sat on the passenger seat.

âÄúI think they knew what they were doing,âÄù Feeney said. âÄúI think it was just an idiot having fun.âÄù

There are no cameras in the parking garage, so the incident was not caught on tape, Feeney said. He hasnâÄôt heard anything from police about possible suspects.