DENVER-- Some Denver women are shaken up after the house they are renting was broken into and burglarized. The burglary happened on Thursday on Sherman Street near Speer Boulevard.
Lauren Meis said she returned home Thursday after work and everything looked normal at first.
“The front door was normal and I came in there are magazines on the floor which I thought was kind of weird because one of my roommates just cleaned for her family that was in town this weekend,” Meis said.
The further she walked into the house, the more apparent the problem became. The cabinets in the kitchen were all left open and Meis noticed the back door was open.
“The frame to the door was on the ground so they kicked in,” Meis said.
When she went into room, she saw it had been ransacked as well as the rooms of her three roommates. Immediately she called the police.
After police looked for evidence and fingerprints, Meis and her roommates started surveying the damage for themselves.
“It’s just a horrible feeling and you come home and somebody's been in your room touching all your stuff,” said Aly Ries, one of the women who live in the home.
That’s when they noticed some of their belongings were missing.
“They took a few nice cameras, some old cell phones from the basement,” Ries said.
However, the bandit didn’t take other items like the two televisions in the house, a bicycle or the computers. That’s caused the roommates to wonder what the thief was looking for.
“That was kind of strange trying to piece together what the whole idea behind it was,” Meis said.
She’s not sure she’ll ever understand why her house was targeted or the reasoning behind what the burglar took and left behind.
However, there was one big ticket item the bandit made off with.
“They took my spare key to my Subaru and took the car that was out front,” said Ries.
The car was a black 2016 Nissan Subaru Forester with the license plate number OTG-027. Ries’s skis and ski boots were inside. She filed a claim with her insurance company and is relying on the bus and friends until she can get a new car or a rental car.
Even now, the roommates are still discovering that some of their belongings are missing.
“I just figured out one of my backpacks is missing, so I don’t know if that was being used to carry stuff in,” Meis said.
The women reached out to their neighbors on NextDoor to ask if anyone had seen anything and to warn them about the burglary.
“People have shared similar stories and success stories with cars found either locally or in other states, so I’m pretty hopeful,” Ries said.
She was overwhelmed by the number of neighbors who reached out to her online afterward.
“I was reading comments to friends and family and we all just felt a little sigh of relief that there’s so many nice people around here with cameras in the alley,” Ries said.
The roommates, who have been renting the home for about two years, didn’t stay in the home for a few days afterward until they can get the door fixed. They’re looking into a home security system and some are moving out.
The women are still nervous about returning home and trying to overcome the loss of security they feel in the aftermath of the burglary.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to me before so [it] just brings up a lot of anxiety and insecurity, and we love this house and it’s always been such a safe haven, but now I just feels tainted and ruined,” Meis said.
Still, the women are thankful for their neighbors and the help they’ve gotten after the burglary.
“I have a lot of good friends and a good support system here that have offered to give me rides and I can take the bus so it’s not horrible but I do feel like a limb is missing,” Ries said of her car.
Anyone with information about this burglary is encouraged to call the police.