Two cars across the street from the House 57 Complexes were broken into and one was stolen early in the morning on Wednesday, Feb. 25, according to UM student Whitney Shelton.
House 57 is an off-campus “student-focused apartment building” located across 57th Avenue from University Village.
Shelton, one of the UM students who was a victim of the robbery, said that her car was stolen on Wednesday morning and was found later the same day at an apartment complex in North Miami, nearly 30 minutes away. Her identification papers, such as her ID and passport, were stolen from inside the car.
Miami-Dade police arrived at House 57 at 4:50 p.m., more than an hour after Shelton called at 3:39 p.m. Shelton’s boyfriend had left the car unlocked with the keys inside the night before, Shelton told Miami-Dade police.
Sergeant Manuel O. Lora, from the Miami-Dade police department, said the robbery occurred between 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24 and 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25
Shelton believes her car was stolen at 4 a.m, four hours after she parked it at 12 a.m. She said her BMW app tracker marked her car had arrived at the North Miami apartment complex at 5 a.m.
Shelton said two other students’ cars were broken into. One was a female with a white Jeep Wrangler, whose belongings were not stolen. The other, a male, stated that his valuables were missing from his vehicle.
While Shelton’s report has been confirmed by the Miami-Dade Police Department, reports for the other two vehicles have not yet been confirmed.
No cameras were operating in the area during that time, Sargent O. Lora said. Miami-Dade police did an “area canvass”, speaking to residents and investigating the area, but it “showed nothing.”
Soon after she retrieved her car, at 11:30 a.m., Shelton said her mother got a call from an unknown person.
“My mom got a random call saying [a woman] had all of my valuables … and then sent me pictures of my possessions in the grass next to my complex,” said Shelton.
According to Shelton, when the police attempted to trace the phone number, they found that it belonged to a burner number from a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) app.
VoIP apps allow users to create a secondary phone number, as well as allow for the user to make voice and video calls over the internet instead of traditional phone lines.
Shelton said she set up an Uber courier — a delivery service that sends items across town through Uber’s network — with the caller. She got her passport and ID back, but her wallet and keys are still missing.
“Don’t leave your things in your car or you will become a target,” said Sergeant O. Lora.
According to the Miami-Dade Police Department, a full report on the case will be made public by March 2 as no detective has been assigned to the case yet.