Intruders common in Amsterdam student housing complex where armed robbery happened

An armed robbery in which a student was hurt at the student housing complex in Amsterdam-Oost earlier this month was no isolated incident, students who live in the building told Parool. Intruders are common, including two regular intruders who even have nicknames by now. Students feel unsafe and say their landlord, Duwo, does not listen to complaints and takes its time with fixing locks.

Parool spoke to multiple students who live in the building on Carolina MacGillavrylaan, most of whom asked to not have their surnames mentioned. They paint a picture of broken locks on access doors despite multiple complaints to Duwo, intruders rattling room doors at night since at least August, and feeling extremely unsafe.

Catherine, 29, was woken by the sound of someone rattling her door handle at 1:00 a.m. on September 8. Looking through the peephole, she immediately recognized an intruder who frequently loiters around the building. Checking the group chat, she found that several other residents had someone messing around their doors.

“Just last week, this person was sleeping on a bench in the lobby. I had extra locks installed on my door, but this shouldn’t be my responsibility,” Catherine said. “I no longer dare to leave my room alone at night. I also don’t dare to tell my parents how unsafe I feel in my home.”

Nine days later, there was an armed home invasion in the complex, in which one resident was injured.

Nikki Eng, 21, chair of the residents’ committee, told the newspaper that there are two recurring intruders. “We’ve nicknamed one of them ‘Sunny’ because he always walks around the complex wearing sunglasses. The other has been spotted in and around the building taking photos of doors. We call him ‘Picture guy,’” Eng said. “We’ve been trying to get Duwo to fix broken locks since early August.”

Multiple students said that Duwo does not take reports about broken locks seriously. “The lock on the communal laundry room has been broken since late August,” Jelle, 20, told the newspaper. “The lock on the door leading to the fourth-floor rooms has been broken since July, too. As a result, many rooms are accessible to intruders.”

“There are two entrance doors in my hallway, and both are broken,” resident Hayden Anderson, 21, said. “I’ve reported this seven times - via the tenant app and by email - but nothing has been repaired yet.”

According to Eng, students feel like they have nowhere to turn. “Duwo refers us to the police, and the police refer us back to Duwo to address the security issue.”

A spokesperson for the Amsterdam police confirmed to Parool that they’ve received four reports about unwanted individuals in the student complex and visited the site three times in August. The spokesperson said that the landlord, not the police, is responsible for the building’s security.

A spokesperson for Duwo said that the landlord has received only two repair requests over the past two months, and these have been addressed. “Following reports received through other channels, we conducted rounds on September 15 and 22 to check and repair door locks. One fault was found, and it is being resolved.” The spokesperson said that reports must be submitted via the tenant app to be addressed, and some reports do not concern broken locks, but rather escape routes that must remain accessible at all times.

Parool said it visited the complex after the reported round of repairs, and students showed its reporters several doors that should only be accessible via an electronic key fob opening without one.

“These are structural problems,” Eng told the newspaper. “We used to have a full-time manager overseeing things, but when he retired, no full-time replacement was appointed.”

“Duwo keeps insisting that it is our own responsibility to be on the lookout for intruders,” said Bas Gerritsen, 26.