SPOKANE, Wash – Victor Hernandez and his wife Jill looked forward to heading to California for Thanksgiving weekend. They rearranged their doggy cameras to face the front and back doors to be safe before leaving. But, on Thanksgiving morning, Jill woke up to a notification on her phone that someone was in their home. In the footage, you can see two people entering their front door and casing the scene.
“It was a disaster,” said Hernandez.
To make matters worse the thieves didn’t leave where they came in. They shattered Hernandez’s side window, which faces his driveway. He believed they did so to load the stolen goods faster. They not only stole items of monetary value like clothes, purses, shoes, and their safes, which held important documents, but the thieves also went after the sentimental ones, like Jill’s father’s ashes.
“That’s going to make me cry. It hurts, but you got to keep going,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez added that although the thieves were only in their home for 30 minutes, the total cost of damages and stolen goods was $20,000.
Cpl. Nick Briggs from the Spokane Police Department says it’s important to take a layered approach when protecting your home. Firstly, make sure all your windows and doors are locked, put cameras in obvious and hidden places, and finally, rely on your community.
“If you’re leaving town, work with trusted neighbors, make sure to ask them to take any packages off your doorstep, maybe alternate the light schedule do things that make it seem like the house is occupied,” said Cpl. Briggs.
Because, when you leave home, you’re putting more than just your belongings on the line, but also your sense of safety, something that Hernandez says was taken, “I have to have a monitoring system, because we don’t feel safe. Where before, I was fine. That was cool.”
