Burglars Make Themselves at Home in Deceased Man's House

A Fond du Lac woman reported Saturday that a home in the 1800 block of North 70th Street that had belonged to her recently deceased brother was burglarized sometime since late February, probably since March 13.

The woman said her brother died on Feb. 6 and she had last been inside his home on Feb. 23.

She arrived Saturday to begin cleaning and packing up her brother’s belongings for an estate sale, she said, and found the front door open and a variety of property missing.

Gone were two TV sets and their Direct TV boxes, a stereo set, a Blue-Ray player, golf clubs, a microwave oven, two frozen pizzas, two six-packs of beer and a sweatshirt, totaling about $3,200 value.

All the shades in the home were drawn, the woman said, whereas they had all been open before. She also found food scraps on the couch and in the kitchen, leading her to believe that the burglar or burglars had a bit of a repast.

Police found no sign of forced entry. A neighbor who had been picking up the deceased's mail said that either on March 13 or 14 a man had come to her door asking about her departed neighbor and said he wanted to pick up some golf clubs that belonged to him. He left a note on the door of the victim’s home, with a phone number.

Another neighbor told police that on the night of March 15, she had seen an adult male with two adolescent girls, about 12 years old, she thought, get out of a car and approach the home.

The girls had waited at the front door, which was soon opened. They went in, she said, and she saw the light of a television going on, and then saw all the shades being drawn. She did not realize all of this was amiss and did not report it.