Six robberies have been reported since the beginning of the semester in the northwest area of city.

Of these six, five involved NIU students and each incident occurred in about a one-week time frame of the others. The incidents occurred between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.

Police response

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen described these occurrences as an uptick or temporary increase in robberies similar to last year, but couldn’t say it was an increase in violent crimes overall.

“We are committing extra resources to it and are continuing to discuss strategies to provide a safer environment in the northwest section of town,” Feithen said.

Patrols have been increased in the area as the crime problem has developed, similar to increased patrols in other sections of town with increased crime, he said.

The police and city staff are discussing other strategies to combat the crime, but Feithen declined to comment until the alternative strategies were finished being discussed.

“We’re not going to tolerate this. This is a community that when people come in to commit a crime, we turn over every rock that we can and track down every lead that we can to make an arrest in these cases,” Feithen said. “We’re committing extra resources to keep the streets safe; we’re aggressively investigating the cases and this department has been very successful in clearing many violent and serious crimes in the community. We have a reputation at solving them. The nice thing is that DeKalb is small enough that you’ll eventually stand out.”

Explanation for occurrences

The high student population of students in the area, and people often being intoxicated while in the area, contribute to the increase, said Lt. Gary Spangler of the DeKalb Police Department.

While intoxicated, a victim is less likely to be on guard, remember what happened, or give a description of the offender, Spangler said. The incidents also range from nighttime to early morning, which Spangler said are the typical times people are out getting food or walking from one place to another intoxicated.

The darkness is also a factor, and fewer occur in the day time, he said.

Some of the robberies are believed to be connected, but Spangler said not all incidents are believed to be committed by the same group.

“Some of them appear to be related, just because of some of the words used by the subjects,” he said. “It’s not hard to believe there’s more than one group. We try and look at similarities in the cases to try and link them, but realistically there’s more than one bad group of people in this town.”

The robberies are handled case by case, and if an arrest is made the incident will be compared to similar crimes.

“This is a large amount of crimes in a short period of time, that in itself will usually show the cases are related,” Spangler said. “We can’t make any assumptions; we have to take the evidence we have, compare it to each one, and go from there.”

Some of the robberies began with the suspects approaching the victim and asking for change, which can be an indication of whether the victim had money on him or her.

The suspects have also been known to try and start a conversation with the victim, making the victim stop and talk and giving the suspect a chance to formulate a plan, he said.

Most of the people arrested for these types of crimes are not from the DeKalb area and are typically visiting someone in the area, Spangler said.

Victims speak out

Pat Kaiser, a senior marketing major, was the victim of a robbery Sept. 23, west of the Greek Row area.

Kaiser left a friend’s house on Rushmore Drive and tried to cross the street to go to College Park but never made it. He doesn’t have much memory of the event happening, but when he came to he was on Twombly Road and oblivious to his own condition.

He then found his way back to the house from which he left and when he showed up on the door step, his friend opened the door and could hardly recognize him from all the blood. The next morning his friends took him to the hospital and called his parents.

Kaiser’s phone and wallet were missing and he did not remember the suspects who attacked him.

He suffered a broken lateral, orbital floor and part of his nose was broken and had internal bleeding in one of his eyes. He also has numbness in the side of his face, which he was not sure would go away.

“I’m really fortunate, for the story that it tells, it should have been a lot worse. I’m lucky to be here after what I went through,” he said. “It’s hard because people see that it’s better, but I can’t really handle being in class and trying to focus, and keeping my head straight on it.”

Kaiser was told by his adviser that when these things happen to people, they have been known to drop classes or drop out of the university, but Kaiser said he was lucky enough to have enough ties here where it’s not even an option for him.

“Right away, hundreds of people found out about it. I am thankful it was me and not someone else, and I’m thankful that hundreds of people heard and are changing the way they go about moving around campus,” he said. “I’d have to believe that by me going through this, I have saved a handful of people going through something worse happening.”

Kaiser said he feels less safe walking at night and when it has been darker out and he is alone. He tries to keep more aware of his surroundings and keeps more coordination between him and his friends now when it comes to getting around.

“When people heard it was me, it really hit them – between my leadership positions and leadership around campus. It has made a lot of people ask, ‘Why him?’ It could have been any of us,” Kaiser said. “I’ve had people come up to me saying ‘My mom sent me mace because of what happened to you.'”

Since the incident, it has been harder for Kaiser to keep schedules because of headaches he has when he wakes up and he says he lives much more day-to-day.

Jon Biskie, a junior business major, was also the victim of a robbery on Oct. 9 in the 1100 block of Blackhawk Road.

“I actually saw the whole thing coming in my head, I even played it out perfectly, but I didn’t think that it could ever happen to me,” Biskie said.

While on the way home, Biskie noticed a black car pull past him into the 7-Eleven at Hillcrest Drive and Annie Glidden Road. Biskie went into the store and bought some food.

When he started walking home again he noticed the car was gone, but did not think anything of it. When Biskie neared Jimmy John’s, 1011 W. Hillcrest Drive, the black car drove past him again and turned down Blackhawk.

It was then Biskie began to think something was not right and began to walk faster and crossed onto the lighter side of the Hillcrest. Three men exited a car at Reilly’s Bar and Eatery, 1215 Blackhawk Road, walked over into the commons area of Campus Cinemas and crossed the street behind him.

Biskie crossed Kimberly Drive and immediately started to walk toward the front door of the Sigma Pi house.

Biskie was almost to the front step when he was tackled from behind by one of the men who struck him in the eye.

Biskie struck one of the men and the two others retaliated and started kicking him in the ribs while telling him to roll over. The attackers threatened to shoot him, but Biskie was not able to tell if they had a gun. The men emptied his pockets and ran back toward Campus Cinemas.

“As far as being scared, no I’m not,” Biskie said. “I am a little more pre-cautious though and I don’t walk anywhere alone without my baseball bat.”

Editor’s Note: The victims’ names were obtained independently of police investigation, or the victim chose to come forward. Both gave permission to publish their names.