Thieves Disable Security System Before Breaking Into Denver Home
DENVER (CBS4) - Police are trying to track down some resourceful thieves who disabled a home's security system before going in and ransacking the house.
Authorities say the case shows some sophisticated criminal tactics.
Anna and Tony live in the home in the North City Park neighborhood that was targeted. The thieves apparently weren't scared off by their ADT security sign outside the house.
"We thought we had preventative measures. We had a security system in place, we have a dog, we have things, but those clearly weren't deterrents," Anna told CBS4.
Police say the thieves flipped a circuit breaker on the home's electrical panel, which shut down the alarm system.
"That scared me a bit because that means that they put a lot of thought in to it," Tony said.
The thieves then smashed in a ground-level window to get inside the home. They then shut the blinds and took their time going through nearly every room for any valuables.
"They took everything. They took drawers out, they rifled through things, they were meticulous," Anna said. "They took almost all of my jewelry and instead of just dumping it in to a bag, they actually went through the boxes and took pieces out."
The thieves didn't take computers that were in the home that were protected by passwords. They ended up just destroying those.
"Here are the computers -- just torn apart. They stomped on them, too," Anna said.
Police are checking into whether the robbers may have recently hit another home nearby. In that crime there was a similar approach of disabling a security system.
The couple is now working to make their home less appealing to thieves and hopes others do the same.
"You get comfortable and you don't think that's ever going to happen to you," Tony said. "You get comfortable in your surroundings. You don't think you're going to get robbed until you do."
Anna and Tony told CBS4 their alarm company is looking in to why the shutoff to the power system didn't trigger an emergency notification. They said they are also looking in to what kind of lock they might be able to place on their electrical panel.
