Are 2009 Sex-Toy Thefts Tied to Recent West Des Moines Burglaries?

West Des Moines Police are trying to determine if two recent breakins are related to a case in 2009 when the same crime victim reported a box of sex toys stolen from her apartment.

A woman — who reported in 2009 that someone had entered her apartment from the back door and stolen a box of sex toys — told police two weeks ago that an intruder has been in her residence again and appears to have gained entry the same way.

The 33-year-old West Des Moines woman reported to police on Feb. 13 that someone had been inside her residence in the Wellington Apartments complex at 4526 E.P. True Pkwy. while she was at work. According to the police report, she told officers that a softball glove, which she had stored between a storage box and some other items, had been moved and placed on the top of the storage box.

Finding the softball glove out of place prompted her to check the rest of the apartment. The woman didn’t find anything missing, but the back door of the ground-floor apartment was unlocked — just as it as in 2009 when she reported an intruder had taken a box of sex toys and other materials from her bedroom closet.

According to Officer Nate Ludwig, who took the initial report, there were no signs of forced entry. The door, which opens to a patio, is secured with a deadbolt that can be opened from the outside with a key.

Ludwig confirmed with the apartment complex manager, Stephanie Boatwright, that there were no maintenance work orders for the apartment. However, Boatwright noted that a worker with a pest-control service under contract had entered all the apartments in the complex.

Police told the woman to remain alert and to report any additional suspicious occurrences to police.

She did, on Feb. 22.

When she returned home from work about 8:30 p.m., she noticed the deadbolt to the back door was again unsecured. She told Officer William Taylor that after the Feb. 13 incident, she had been vigilant about checking the back door to ensure it was locked.

She had checked the door after noticing that a pair of shirts that had been neatly folded and stacked in the closet looked as if they had been disturbed.

Noting the woman’s closet was neat and well organized, Taylor wrote in his report that “it would be pretty easy to observe something out of place.”

Police don’t know if the two recent break-in reports are related to the 2009 burglary and theft.

“However, it did appear that the unknown suspect was looking for something specific” in the two recent cases, Taylor wrote in his report.