A Carlsbad home is the latest target in a string of lightning-fast burglaries in the North County.
“My heart was beating much faster by then,” said Malcolm Widdison.
On Friday, around 1 p.m., Widdison’s heart started pounding as he walked the second floor of his house.
“I realized we'd been broken into. That was the scary part,” Widdison said.
The scare came after a morning at work. He left around 8 p.m. and when he returned to his home on Camino Valencia, he saw it - glass everywhere and a big hole in his glass patio door.
“Just total shock. You don’t expect to come home and see glass all over. You could see the shape of something round, possibly a baseball bat,” Widdison said.
After the intruder smashed the patio door, the crook grabbed a laptop, two tablets, and a eBook reader, before raiding a bedroom cabinet. A cabinet that contained some 20 pieces of jewelry, many of them family heirlooms.
“Just very sad. It's things you cherish over the years. Obviously those are not replaceable,” he said.
It's a devastating feeling shared by others in the North County.
Earlier this month, 10News detailed the story of Rhonda Oesterle. Similar to Widdison, she came home to a shattered patio door and ransacked home in Encinitas.
Down the street, there was another smash-and-enter burglar. In that case, the thief got away with a safe full of jewelry.
The glass repairman told the victims he had fixed three similar patio doors on three consecutive nights, including one in Oceanside and one in Escondido.
10News contacted investigators at every law enforcement agency in the North County. In most cases, the incidents took place during the day.
Detectives are still trying to confirm a link between the break-ins.
