We’ve reported recently on two cat burglaries and there has been another.
This one happened on Edgepine, a street near White Rock Elementary, on June 5 at about 3:30 a.m.
The homeowner/victim is now warning his neighbors via mass e-mail:
The incident occurred while he, his wife and three kids were sleeping.
He writes, “I heard a noise that sounding like a dish clanking in the sink. It woke me up and my initial thoughts were that it was my cat up on the counter. However, I proceeded to the kitchen to investigate and everything looked okay, except that the water faucet was running at a slight stream. I didn’t think anything looked out of the ordinary, so I assumed the cat had done it, so I turned it off and went back to bed. The next morning, we woke up and noticed that my laptop and Ipad were not on the couch where I had left them from the night before. The next thing I noticed was that my wallet was laying on the kitchen counter in a different place than where I typically leave it. When I opened my wallet, it was completely cleaned out of bills (thankfully only around $40). At this point I knew that the noise I heard at 3:30am was someone leaving through my kitchen window (that was left unlocked) above my sink. They had probably bumped the faucet with their foot upon leaving. When I raised the shade above our sink, the window sill was covered in dirt and the window was slightly open at the bottom.”
“Police have done a full report with crime scene investigation. No fingerprints were found … There are a few things that could have protected this from happening …I have to admit that we, as a family, became very complacent in our alarm setting. In fact, we rarely were even setting it anymore. We also did not make an effort to check our windows to ensure that they were securely locked. I subsequently found three windows that were unlocked. The other item that I believe demonstrates the astute level of the burglar(s) is that they picked an obscure window that did not have a contact point for our alarm system. This kitchen window is the smallest one and is about 7-feet off the ground. I went outside and below the window there were two perfectly planted footprints that demonstrates that this burglar was not working alone. One of them had hoisted his buddy up to the window to push it open and come in.”
The homeowners are circulating this email, they say, in order to get the word out and ensure that we all are checking our windows, locks and alarm systems.