Home burglaries are back in North San Diego County, apparently just in time for the holidays.
Police have received a half-dozen break-in complaints in as many weeks all in wealthy neighborhoods of Scripps Ranch.
It was no accident Jim Kaplan’s back slider shattered. It was burglars who broke in four days ago.
“It's pretty unnerving. It’s pretty unnerving,“ Kaplan said.
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Kaplan was out of town on business. At 7:45 that night, the suspects breached the door. Another member of the crew in a car pulled up in front of his house. You can see the headlights in a video recorded on a neighbor's security camera.
“This was not beginners. They knew to go to the alarm. They knew to get the battery off to disable it. They knew where things would probably be,” Kaplan said.
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Fifteen minutes later, the security video shows that same car doing a U-turn before speeding away.
San Diego police say the burglary at Kaplan's house was the last of six burglaries in Scripps Ranch in six weeks. The time between the 5th and 6th break-ins was just one hour, according to SDPD.
Teresa and Mark Meserve’s home was target number four.
“It wasn’t so much what they stole. But they were in your house running amuck,“ Mark Meserve said.
Mark Meserve showed us video of his ransacked closet and bathroom he recorded on his phone after returning from Thanksgiving vacation.
“You are seeing the master closet and what we returned to after vacation. It was just demolished,“ Mark Meserve said.
In at least four of the six burglaries, the thieves entered under the cover of empty hillsides in the rear of the homes.
“I hadn’t drawn my curtains. So it was easy for them to determine no one was home,” Kaplan said
“I try not to let it affect me but it does. We are trying to ignore all that and move on with our lives,“ Mark Meserve said.
They stole only what they could easily carry but the size doesn’t measure up to the value at the Meserve's.
“They are things you can’t replace and we’ve had in the family for a long time. We felt so secure,“ Teresa Meserve said.
So far police have not linked all six burglaries to the same crew. Nor have they linked these break-ins to those in other North County communities in the last couple of years.
