The home of my next door neighbor, 6583 Cottingham Place, was totally ransacked some time Saturday evening, June 21st.  The individuals broke through the back sliding glass door and lit her candles and used her flashlights to go through the entire house.  They took tv's, computer, printer, checks, credit cards, jewelry, etc.  She says her bedroom was so ransacked that she could hardly get through her bedroom door.  They had moved additional tv's, etc. and placed them on chairs in one room, taped them up and seemed to have them staged to be removed as well.  The yard man discovered the broken glass on Sunday and realized that the home had been broken into.

It is unknown whether the remaining items were packed for a future visit to this home, or whether the thieves were somehow spooked.

The neighbor travels extensively and is rarely home.  She stated that the thieves even brought boxes with them, as they left some of them behind.  The front door was not used, so it was determined that they must have pulled a vehicle into her back yard and loaded things out of the back door.

We have to assume that whoever broke into her home had information relative to the fact that she is rarely there, or they have been watching it enough to determine the same.  I am shocked, and dissappointed that although the side of my house is right next to her driveway, I neither saw or heard anything. 

Please keep an eye out for your neighbors.  We have now exchanged phone numbers and have been made aware of what vehicles are allowed to be at her home.

Thanks so much for being so descriptive in reporting this. I try to keep up with things, but unless residents call me or bring things to our attention such as this posting, there's no way of knowing that this area is being "hit" again. I am sorry that this happened. And I tend to agree, the persons who broke into this home must have had some knowledge of the place being unlived in for periods of time.

There's really no advice to give in these situations nor do I pretend to know what the answers are. As much we we don't want to admit it, the neighborhood is not safe. There are countless service people in cars and trucks going in and out of this area daily and any one of them could be watching houses en route. New construction proposed for Lausanne School as well as the lots being developed at Massey Lane/E Massey Road are also bringing constructions trucks loaded with more service people in and out of the neighborhood daily. That, coupled with the lawn services, equals many, many strangers, any one of which could be watching and planning a break-in as I write this.

If you're privvy to any suspicious activity - please take a minute to post it here. I have reports as to how many times this site is accessed and people DO check it.

Dee Billmeier