A handkerchief-wearing thief had a videotaped message for his victim: pay a $3,000 ransom, and you can get your video games back. There was just one problem. The burglar forgot to include any instructions for dropping off the cash.
"We're not dealing with brain surgeons here," police Lt. Joe Cawley said.
The message was delivered by videotape, but overlooked until recently. The day after the woman had items stolen from her car in November, she found her own videotape stuck inside her mailbox.
While she reported the theft and finding the videotape right away, she just got around to watching the entire tape last week, Cawley said.
That's when she discovered that part of the original content — the recent birth of her child — had been taped over with a message from the burglar who stole her video games, a compact disc player, camera equipment, clothing and a video camera.
"We would really like to catch this guy," Cawley said. "We don't know if they intended actually to bribe them for money or were fooling around. But the victims are living in a lot of fear because they know where they live and some personal things about them via the video."