PORT ST. LUCIE — Sleep has been hard to come by ever since someone broke into what Gayle Crothers considers her sanctuary.

She pulled into her driveway Monday afternoon and noticed a strange car backed up to her house. “I came in the front door and there was a man standing here, or actually two men, but behind the door there was a third one I did not see,” says Crothers.

The men pushed Crothers down and took off, leaving with her Ipod, a laptop and several remotes.

“They had a TV and a DVD player by the front door. It was obvious they had just gotten there because with three of them, that’s all they had gotten. They had unplugged the other TV and gone into my room and pulled all the drawers open.”

Port St. Lucie police say Crothers’ home was one of several hit in the southwest corner of the city in recent weeks.

Officers caught up with at least some of the suspects. And they gave Crothers some tips to make her home more secure. Among them:

– Extra locks at the top and bottom of doors.

– For the sliding glass doors, wood at the bottom and top, which “prevents this from being lifted up off the tracks,” says Crothers.

Police also told the Port St. Lucie woman not to confront anyone she finds in her home. Crothers now knows a better way to keep her sanctuary safe. “I am starting to sleep a little bit better now.”

Crothers believes there were at least five burglaries in her neighborhood. Police could not confirm this number.
CAROLYN SCOFIELD, TCPalm.com

Tags: burglary, thieves, woman

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Crime, Port St. Lucie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.