EUGENE (AP) — Thieves broke into scores of rentals near the University of Oregon during winter break, leaving cash-starved students in even worse financial shape.

As students return to class, many are struggling to recover. Most don’t have renter’s insurance; few have the money to replace stolen laptops and other items.

The Eugene Police Department said there were more than 80 reported burglaries at student rentals during the three-week period.

UO junior Maggie Long and her roommate arrived home to find drawers overturned, and missing MP3 players, DVD players, digital cameras and DVDs. “It was kind of a helpless feeling,” she said.

Near 15th Avenue and Patterson Street, burglars hit four homes in the same block. Neighbors said windows were smashed, and computers, bikes and televisions were taken. With the high number of reported burglaries, UO junior Jack Barry and his roommates don’t think they’ll get anything back.

“It sucks,” Barry told The Register-Guard newspaper. “They even took the change out of our change jars.”

Two Eugene police officers are assigned to a campus substation, but winter break is a tempting time for burglars, said Jenna LaBounty, a police spokeswoman.

“They know that’s a spot where there is going to be a lot of vacations,” she said. “We always notice a spike when the students are gone.”

But whether it’s the bad economy, an inadequate number of patrol officers or just the emergence of a prolific burglar, that spike was unusually high this time around. Police said the number of reported burglaries is more than triple the total from the same time last year.

The break-ins even hit people who weren’t gone for weeks.

Serina Woodcock, 28, said she left for a few hours to go to a Christmas party and returned to find her upstairs bedroom had been ransacked — her computer, jewelry, Palm Pilot and camera all gone.

Even the laundry basket was gone.

“I guess to carry it all out,” she said.