Rocklin Neighborhood Hit By Cat Burglar Again
ROCKLIN (CBS13) — A sneaky suspect is accused of breaking into a Rocklin home, then cleaning a family out while they slept — and it's not the first time.
CBS13's Checkey Beckford spoke with the victims of both recent crimes.
Jamie Emerick and her two young children woke up to an alarming surprise Sunday.
"It took a moment to realize that someone had been in the house and that my purse had been by the couch," she said.
Her son's cell phone was also stolen after someone broke in through their kitchen window while the family slept upstairs.
"Just an awful, icky feeling, like someone kicked you in the stomach," Emerick said.
But the Emerick's aren't the only one who are shaken up. Word spread quickly among neighbors on Water Lily Lane that a cat burglar has struck again.
Marsha Stefanovich, who lives right across the street from the Emerick's, was the first victim. The day before Thanksgiving, she awoke to the sound of at least two burglars ransacking her home. She says one even searched her 11-year-old son's empty bedroom.
"I'm just thinking to myself 'really?' It's really crazy, really freaky," she said. "I was with my son in my room and my first instinct was to get him protected, put him in the closet. At that point I instructed them to get the hell out of my house."
Thieves in this incident also entered through a window, making off with luxury items, electronics and cash. Rocklin detectives do believe the cases are connected.
But Marsha says they took off with something much more valuable.
"Things are things," she said. "At the end of the day, what they took away was my piece of mind."
Neighbors are now taking matters into their own hands, some installing security systems and others going a step further.
Like Marsha, who says if thieves return, she'll be ready.
"I went to TDS Guns, got my safety certificate and now it's the waiting period," she said. "I'm going to be ready for the next time, that's for sure. They're not leaving alive, guarantee you that."
