Campus police are investigating a dozen burglaries in Bainer Hall over the last month, in which the culprit or culprits forced open doors to labs and offices during weekends.

Getting into the building was easier, Lt. Bill Beermann said. With no signs of forced entry, officers believe the burglar or burglars got in with a key or through an unlocked door — or someone let them in.

In the most recent incident, discovered Sunday (Oct. 13), the culprit or culprits rifled through a desk, but nothing had yet been reported missing, and tried but failed to enter another office, Beermann said.

The first burglary in the series was reported Sept. 9. “It's really a spectrum of things that have been taken,” Beermann said. So far, Bainer Hall occupants have come in on Sundays and Mondays to find cameras, computer monitors, tools, paint supplies and other items missing.

Beerman said the Police Department is working with staff and faculty to find a solution to the after-hours building  access issue and overall building security.

Anyone with information on the burglaries is asked to contact police, 530-752-1727.

Crime Prevention: What You Can Do

Crew returns from Saddleridge Fire

A campus fire crew worked a 24-hour shift on the Sandalwood Fire in Southern California over the weekend before being released to go home.

UC Davis got the call Friday (Oct. 11) and put Brush Truck 34 on the road with the following crew: Paul Rush, captain; Corrie Beall, engineer; and Chris Hay and Cara Martinez, firefighters.

They were headed to the Sandalwood Fire in Riverside County, but got diverted to the Saddleridge Fire north and west of the northernmost neighborhoods of Los Angeles County. “Brush 34 was assigned to Division V when they arrived on a 24-hour shift,” UC Davis Fire Chief Nate Trauernicht said. “It was an active division, but fire behavior has thankfully slowed with the change in weather.”

The crew returned Monday night (Oct. 15). CalFire officials this morning (Oct. 16) put the fire's size at nearly 8,400 acres with 45 percent containment, and reported one fatality and three injuries, along with 17 structures destroyed and 77 damaged.

The Sandalwood Fire, where flames tore through a mobilehome park, had been contained as of this morning after covering just over 1,000 acres, destroying 74 structures and damaging 16 others.

Follow Dateline UC Davis on Twitter.