Burglaries in cemetery area continue
Again and again, someone keeps entering homes around the cemetery, first stealing money from wallets and purses, then re-entering the same homes to nab laptops, iPhones, iPads and other electronics.In an impromptu online Facebook community, neighbors discussed what had been stolen from their homes, compared notes on the burglar’s physical description and complained that police weren’t doing enough.
They requested, and got, a community meeting with Key West Police Chief Donie Lee and city commissioners to learn what police were doing to catch the thief. Lee, during a series of media interviews, urged residents to lock doors and windows. He also posted undercover officers in the neighborhoods, had officers stop and question people walking through the neighborhoods after midnight and offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who provided tips that led to the arrest of the burglar.
When police arrested a man near Key West Cemetery in December, beleaguered residents hoped they’d seen the last of the serial burglaries that had plagued their neighborhood for more than a year. That hope was dashed last week after residents in two houses, one on Windsor Lane and the other on Olivia Street, both on the edges of the cemetery, discovered laptops and other electronics missing from their homes.
In the first case, which occurred on Jan. 29, Olga Turcan awoke at 11 a.m. that Wednesday morning and quickly dashed out the door, late for work. That’s when she noticed her living room window was open and the blinds were askew, she told police in the burglary report. She didn’t have time to stop, so she phoned her husband from work and asked him to see if anything was missing.
There was: A purse, a wallet, a Samsung laptop, a suitcase, a Garmin GPS unit, tax documents, and a pack of Marlboro Lights cigarettes — all were taken from the couple’s living room, police reported. According to the report, the couple went to bed at 2 a.m. the night before. A detective, noting that there were no footprints in the ground outside the window though rain had begun around 3 a.m., surmised that the burglary occurred between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.
The most recent burglary, on Windsor Lane Feb. 1, wasn’t noticed for four days because homeowner Paul Geisz, his wife, and Geisz’s father all keep separate schedules. The younger Geisz thought his father might have borrowed his laptops, as he does from time to time, police said. The older Geisz told his son he had not borrowed the laptops on Feb. 5; when his son called police. He reported the two computers — black and grey XPS 15 laptops, valued at $1,100 and $1,500 respectively — and a pair of Oliver Peoples aviator sunglasses, were stolen.
There were no signs of forced entry, police said.
Police noticed a security camera, aimed at the house from a neighbor’s property, but the neighbor told them it is fake. Police discovered a second video camera on another adjacent property that was working. That resident told police he would review the video and contact detectives if he spotted valuable images on the video.
Key West Police spokesperson Alyson Crean said detectives are working hard to arrest whomever has been breaking into the occupied homes. She urged residents to continue to lock doors and windows and to call police immediately if they see anything or anyone suspicious.
The burglaries usually occur between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.
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