After Burglary, Lakewood Woman Warns Neighbors To Be On Guard

LAKEWOOD, WA - Barbara Erickson has lived with her family in Lakewood for 27 years and hasn't really had any problems. But on Monday she came home to find her front door kicked in and her house burglarized. So Erickson wants to warn other Lakewood residents to be alert, no matter how safe your neighborhood seems.

Erickson and her husband left for work Monday by 8 a.m. When Erickson came home on a break from work at 3:45 p.m., she saw her door was open. At first, she thought her husband had forgot to close it. Then she saw two footprints on the door and the mangled frame.

"I didn't go in, I just called police," she said.

The burglar (Erickson suspects it was just one person) was very specific. He left a valuable iPad and a checkbook, but spent time prying into Erickson's fire safe. He emptied her clothes drawers, but not her husband's. And the burglar only emptied one drawer in a desk, a drawer that just happened to contain a family heirloom ring.

Erickson lives on a cul-de-sac between the southeast end of Ft. Steilacoom Park and Steilacoom Lake. The burglar was likely on foot, Erickson said, because he stole one of her Eddie Bauer duffel bags to transport what he stole. The burglar ended up taking a few pieces of jewelry (one is Erickson's Oregon State University class ring) and her son's sticker-covered laptop.

"It looks like they wanted stuff to pawn," she said.

Lakewood police took a report, but, according to spokesman Lt. Chris Lawler, there were no surveillance cameras in the neighborhood. An officer interviewed neighbors, but no one saw anything, Lawler said.

Erickson knows burglaries are not unique. She knows someone who's home was broken into off of 104th Street Southwest very recently. According to the city of Lakewood's crime map, there have been over 600 reports of residential property crime or breaking and entering since the beginning of 2017. There were 4,475 total property crimes in 2016, according to the department's annual report.

But it's scary to have your home invaded like that, and Erickson doesn't want it to happen to anyone else.

"I just want other people in the neighborhood to know," she said. Erickson has also posted information about the burglary on her local NextDoor group.

If you saw strange activity in the vicinity of Erickson's neighborhood - perhaps someone walking down the street with an Eddie Bauer duffel bag - contact the Lakewood police crime tip line at (253) 830-5064.

Image via Lakewood police