Gardnerville family learns expensive lesson from burglary

Sheena Beaver learned the hard way the value of locking up her vehicles.

On May 5, while four adults and a 5-year-old child were asleep, burglars rifled through three unlocked vehicles parked in the driveway of her Stodick Estates home, opened the garage and walked away with $7,500 in property.

"We were home sleeping while thieves broke into our three cars and our garage," Beaver said. "These are brazen criminals. The night of our robbery, they hit three or four other houses in our neighborhood."

Beaver said everybody went to sleep at 9:30 p.m. on May 5. When she headed out for work at 6 a.m. Wednesday, she noticed the car doors were open and the garage door was up.

"They took time to unbolt an amplifier and subwoofer that actually was bolted to the car. They took a laptop out of the car and any kind of iPod accessory they could find," she said.

In the garage, they took a snowboard, a new $800 mountain bike and wheeled out a 4-foot mechanic-style toolbox filled with tools.

"They knew exactly what they wanted," she said. "We had four snowboards and they took the best one. They had to push things aside and rifled through everything in the garage.

"They had to push the toolbox down the street. We found screwdrivers in the street. They unplugged all the chargers for the drills and batteries. It was really random," she said.

The burglars went through bags of clothes and tore up carpet in one of the trucks, Beaver said.

"While the deputies were in our garage at 7 a.m., they got two more calls for break-ins in Stodick Estates," she said.

Two days later, Beaver said, thieves hit two more homes.

Beaver said she is not optimistic her items will be returned, but she wants other people to know so there won't be more victims.

"We're pretty scared," she said. "We don't know if they came into our house and saw anything else they want to come back for. What if my 5-year-old had heard something and just walked out?"

Beaver said she now locks up the cars, brings in the garage door opener from the car and is pricing alarm systems.

She's checking pawnshops, eBay and craigslist to see if her stolen property is online.

And she's had to comfort her little girl.

"We told her it's OK, that people did take our things, but our house is locked and she has nothing to be afraid of," Beaver said.

In addition to Beaver and her boyfriend, Billy Shrum, two cousins from Nashville, Tenn., are visiting.

"My cousins are sleeping with a baseball bat and the window is shut. They're shocked. I tried to tell them this doesn't happen in Gardnerville, but apparently it does. If there were seven burglaries down here in two days and those 14 other ones, 21 families have gone through this," she said.

She referred to the arrest May 7 of a couple suspected of burglarizing 14 homes in Carson Valley. Officers don't believe they're involved in the vehicle burglaries.

Beaver, a Carson Valley resident for 12 years, said she moved to Stodick Estates from Indian Hills in October because she thought the neighborhood would be safer.

"They're targeting the nicer neighborhoods. It's such a violation," she said. "You work hard and people come in and take everything you saved up for."

- Don't leave valuables in your car. This includes your remote garage door opener.

- If you must leave valuable items in your car, place them out of sight or in the trunk.

- If your trunk can be opened from inside your car without a key, lock this feature when you are not in your car or have it disabled.

- Don't leave empty docking stations in plain sight. Even if you've taken the high-dollar electronic component with you, thieves will see the docking station and possibly break into your vehicle just to see if you did remove it. Very few auto break-ins are random " the thieves usually see something in plain sight that is valuable, or hints of possible hidden valuables. Same goes for loose change or CDs. Remove them from sight.

If you have an after-market stereo/CD-player with a removable faceplate, remove it. Without the faceplate, the unit is less attractive and useful to thieves, and even harder to pawn.

- If parking overnight, park in your driveway. If that is not possible, try to park in a busy, well-lit area. Auto burglars prefer breaking into vehicles where they will not be observed or attract notice.

- Lock all the doors to your vehicle even if you plan to be gone for only a brief time. Every year, we have items stolen from unlocked vehicles where the owner was only going to be gone "for just a few seconds." It only takes seconds to steal your stuff! It's common for thieves to walk down a row of parked vehicles and check vehicle doors to see if they are unlocked. Don't leave any window open or even cracked open, including vent/wing windows and sunroofs.

- Don't think your dark tinted windows will hide your valuables. Thieves often use flashlights to see through tint.

- If you have an alarm or antitheft device, use it. Many people believe that car alarms no longer make a difference, but they can be an effective deterrent to an auto burglar, who most often chooses the easiest target. Thieves want to work in secrecy; they do not want to attract any attention.

- Backpacks, gym bags, briefcases, day-planners

- Cash/coins, checkbooks and credit/debit cards

- Wallets and purses (even when hidden under a seat or in a center console or glove compartment)

- Laptop computers, iPods and MP3 players (and docking stations)

- Cell phones (and chargers)

- Portable GPS navigation systems

- Stereo/CD players, amps, speakers

- Jewelry, keys, mail or vehicle registration paperwork (for identity theft)