Break-ins at Samfunnet

If you’re a member, you’ve probably received an e-mail about the repeated break-ins at our dear Samfunnet. How much has been stolen? And how does this affect us, the people who use Samfunnet? I’m meeting Head of Bodega Frida Helstedt Håtveit in Klubben, and hope to get some answers

Jorunalist: Åsmund Godal Tunheim
Fotograf: William Fredrik Bakke Dahl

Valuables worth more than 170 000 kr

“There have been three big break-ins that we know about,” says Frida. “The first one was around MiniUKA in February, and there have been two more after that”. She says that the worth of the stolen goods adds up to more than 100 000 kr. Other than that, empty bottles and cans have been stolen, and the deposit of those adds up to around 70 000 kr. They keep discovering that things are missing, but it’s difficult to tell if they have been misplaced or if they have been stolen, she says. The theft of bottles and cans has been going on for a long time, but it has recently been discovered, and they are not necessarily related to the break-ins.

But what has been stolen, apart from the bottles? Frida tells me about a varied collection of stolen property: “A lot of technical equipment and tools have been stolen, and a bunch of private possessions that have been stored here”. The burglars have nearly destroyed the office of The Board of Samfunnet, helped themselves to pins and stickers, and even stolen the defibrillator. They have also gotten their hands on a lot of keys, which has given Samfunnet a lot of work with changing all of the padlocks “There has been a lot to do”, Frida sighs.

These kinds of situations cause a lot of extra work for the volunteers, that are not usually a part of their tasks. The Head of Bodega thinks it’s sad that the thieves steal from a place based on volunteer work. Tuntréet has received tips that say some of the people who work at Samfunnet in the evenings find it uncomfortable to think about the possibility that they might be surprised by burglars. “It makes you feel unsafe,” says Frida. “I think it’s incredibly sad that you have to experience that as a volunteer”.

In safe hands?

All of the burglaries have been reported to the police, and they have been treated as one case. When I ask how the investigation is going, Frida says the case has been dismissed: “Nothing else is going to happen about it.” When I ask about potential suspects, she says: “We should not do the investigating. That is a task for the police, and when they dismiss it, there is not much more we can do”. She does, however, ask everyone to submit tips about the cases if they have any, and they will pass it on to the police and hope something will happen. But right now, it has come to a halt.

Easy target?

Frida does not want to give the impression that breaking into Samfunnet is easy, but she points out that a lot has been based on trust: “There have been a lot of keys going around that we have not really had control over. That is a lot of the reason why we are in the process of replacing them with card readers, so that we use our student cards instead of keys. That way, we know that only the people who are supposed to access a place, actually access it”. She says that this is a somewhat complicated process. Because the building is partially owned by NMBU, they need to be a part of the process. “We try to work on it through the General Operation and Maintenance Committee, but it takes some time,” she says. It’s not exactly free either, but they see it as an investment if it can deter people from breaking in in the future.

The rules are getting stricter

Samfunnet has made good routines for closing the house down in the evenings, where the elected volunteers (The boards of NU, Tuntréet, Samfunnet and UKA) take turns doing the daily locking of doors. Securitas also do laps on the outside each night, to make sure that everything is locked. A burglar alarm has also been installed in Kontorfløya, and they are waiting for NMBU to get it installed in the rest of the building.

After implementing these safety measures, there hasn’t been a single break-in, which shows that they work. But even though the rules are getting slightly stricter, the building will still be open every day 8-23 after UKA. Indoors, most doors will stay unlocked, so using the building will feel very similar

The Keykeeper as a deterrent?

Until 2023, the Keykeepers lived at Samfunnet, two students (only one in the last semester) who worked as janitors and were responsible for locking doors. In return, they lived rent free, got free food in the cafeterias and a little pocket money. “SiÅs did this because Studentsamfunnet wanted them to,” says Frida. The position was not very popular, however, with few or no applicants. Their living quarters were also in poor condition and refurbishing them was too expensive. All this is the reason why there has been no keykeeper from January of 2024 and onwards. The first break-in happened just a month after this.

Ironically, the Keykeeper was established as a reaction to break-ins at Samfunnet, and it was effective. I ask Frida what she thinks about this seemingly obvious correlation. She answers: “Break-ins were not a problem when we had Keykeepers, so that is possible”. She points out that it’s difficult to say if there is a direct correlation between these two things, even though it might look like it. “It’s just speculation, and there could have been break-ins without us realising it”. I wonder loudly if there is a psychological barrier when it comes to breaking into a house where people live, rather than an empty one, and Frida answers: “Yes, and that’s why we have the deal with Securitas, so that it’s clear the house is not empty. We do have people here”.

The Board of Samfunnet would have liked to still have Keykeepers, but a lot of factors made this impossible. Without a Keykeeper, the members of the different boards have to step up and do their part of the job to make sure that the doors are locked every night. Of course, the people who use the building in the evenings are also responsible for making sure that the locked doors stay locked after hours, so that the thieves cannot just walk in and help themselves.

What does this mean for you and me?

The most obvious consequence of the break-ins is that the members and users of Samfunnet will have access to fewer rooms. We will have to use our student cards more, and we might encounter more locked doors. But Frida does not want us to view Samfunnet as a locked house: “We want a house that’s open to the students and the people using it”.

The Head of Bodega makes it clear that Samfunnet does not want to close the house down, or that people are greeted by locked doors. Samfunnet wants people to use the house and feel that it’s accessible to them. “But we also do not want break-ins. And there hasn’t been a single break-in after we implemented these things,” she points out.

The way forward

To sum up, Frida reminds us of the following: “This is new for us too. We want feedback, but we also want some sympathy that this is new and difficult for us”. Tuntréet agrees, and thinks it’s sad that the heart of our community has become a victim for ruthless greed. We hope the new routines around locking doors, the burglar alarm, the card readers and Securitas patrolling the grounds will make the thieves keep their dirty hands away from our dear Samfunnet.