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Longmont woman comes home to find people ransacking her house

Was it estate sale confusion or outright theft?
Posted at 4:32 PM, Mar 27, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-27 19:31:23-04

LONGMONT, Colo. -- Mary Andrews still can't believe what happened.

She came home from running errands last Friday and saw several people, with their arms full of her belongings, coming out of her house.

"My house was being vandalized," she said. "I thought, why are these people coming out of my house?"

She said she confronted them.

"I said, 'What's going on?' And they said, 'Oh everything is free.' I said, 'No it's not. This is my house,' and they said, 'No, a lady said everything is free.'"

Andrews said a neighbor a few doors down was having an estate sale. Some of the stuff there apparently was free.

Andrews added that her neighbor had posted signs advertising the estate sale, but not all of them had addresses printed on them.

Was there confusion?

Andrews' daughter-in-law, Leslie Cockrum, doesn't think so.

"I have a theory," she said. "Somebody realized no one was home and went in and came out with stuff, (saw other people) and told someone just so they wouldn't look like they were stealing."

"You could tell they knew what they were doing," Andrews said. "They were quick at it."

Andrews said everything from jewelry to toilet paper disappeared, as did her college-age grandson's computer and three cameras.

"It was awful," she said. "I think I'm still in shock from it."

Andrews said she noticed her garden windmill in the back of someone's car.

"I said, 'That's my windmill,' and he said, 'No it's not.' I said, 'Yes it is and I want it back.'"

She said someone else had taken the matching lawn chairs.

Police Report

Andrews called police.  They took a report and told Denver7 that it appears there was a great deal of confusion about the estate sale elsewhere on the block.

When asked if anyone who had taken items from Andrews house had contacted police, Cmdr. Joel Post said he wasn't aware of any calls.

Items left behind

Some people left what they had gabbed once they were confronted by Andrews. Others did not.

"A woman (in a car) at the end of the block sped off," Cockrum said. "She knew what was happening."

Andrews said she hopes people who see this story will realize they took items that didn't belong to them and will bring them back.

"You never know what people are going to do," she said. "You just hope for the best."