"I feel unsafe in my own house": Recent break-ins have Medway residents on edge

MEDWAY - Nadia Sullivan just got a new security camera, and an alarm that goes right to Medway police. "Oh my gosh, it feels so violated, and now I feel unsafe in my own house," she said. She was not home when someone broke in Friday, leaving strange footprints on the bulk-head entry to her basement and a windowsill above.

"They were all locked. He broke the basement window," she said. "He made a mess. He took all the drawers out…He was looking for jewelry. I don't have any jewelry, so…he took just a Swiss Army watch."

Hers is one of several homes hit by a thief in the quiet Brentwood section of Medway. Two of them happened Friday. In the third case, the family discovered the mess when they returned from vacation Sunday night.

"It's definitely alarming and very unusual for Medway," said Vanessa St. Cyr, who lives on Karen Avenue where one of the break-ins happened. The others were on Coffee Street and Oakview Circle. "Just making sure all the windows are locked and all the doors are deadbolted," said St. Cyr.

"To have three in one quick period of time like that makes us a little worried we might have more," said Medway Police Chief William Kingsbury. He's offering some unusual advice, to set up a "bait" jewelry box in the master bedroom. "Costume jewelry, worthless jewelry, stuff you'd throw away otherwise. Let them steal that, and leave your good stuff somewhere else outside the master bedroom."

"Hide your jewelry. That's what they were after," said Nadia Sullivan. She hopes no one else in her neighborhood has to feel what she's now feeling. "Really, really scary. You feel violated."