An alert — and concerned — “06880” reader writes:
Your “feel-good” story about Minute Men Cleaner’s return of money contrasted with the not-so-feel-good story of an attempted break in at my residence last Friday — which apparently is not an isolated incident. I share with you the story, hoping that readers will be careful to observe any suspicious activity and contact the police with any information.
Last Friday early afternoon, I left my house for 2 hours, then returned to Greens Farms. All seemed normal.
I let my dog out, and noticed wood on the ground. Then I saw fresh wood on the door molding. My first inclination was that an animal did this.
I quickly realized though that someone (or a group of people) had tried breaking into our house while I was gone. I called the police. When they came, they said a number of other houses were hit around the same time.
They took photos, info, etc., and mentioned we were lucky to have a deadbolt on our door. They said the crow bar that was apparently used was no match for the deadbolt.
A deadbolt helped deter the burglars. Here’s what the door frame looked like afterward.
Hopefully our dog also started to bark. We do have a house alarm. It was activated but not triggered, since the intruders failed to enter.
This whole experience is very unsettling. My family has lived in 3 houses in Westport for 6 years. I have been married for almost 20 years, and have never had anyone attempt to break in to any of our homes.
We know we are fortunate not to deal with a break-in during the middle of the night, or even during the day. However, this left us feeling very violated and frustrated.
My 7 year old reacted very differently. She said, “I feel sick and scared.” I did everything to reassure her she is safe, and that the police will work on capturing the criminals.
When I told friends in the area what had happened, a woman told this story:
One morning last week, 2 youths rang my doorbell. I thought they were selling magazines. My dog was going crazy, so I didn’t open it wide or talk long.
They said they were looking for an address. I tried to help, but they hustled off. For some reason it felt ‘off’ to me all weekend. It was weird that they didn’t say ‘thanks,’ and one of the guys was really smiley, like he knew he was being deceptive.
I closed the door and thought, which is unlike me, that these guys were casing the house, that I was grateful to have been home, and also to have my dog going crazy at them.
As I finished typing this, I just found out that a number of police cars were out in my neighborhood today, near the Post Road. Was it another attempted break-in?
Sad that we have to say and do this — but please be alert and lock your doors. Set your alarms if you have them. Please call the police if you see anything. Hopefully whoever is doing this will be caught.
P.S. A shout-out to local company Jake the Locksmith. They came to our house the same day to see if the integrity of the door was compromised. Great service!
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