Relentless Thieves Shatter Peace

The first burglary angered Judy and Rich Callahan. The second frightened them into installing deadbolt locks. The third made them so nervous they were sick. The fourth convinced Judy to carry a gun. Rich already kept his shotgun nearby.

After the fifth burglary, Judy cried. She woke up at night terrified.

“Even the dog was traumatized. She must have been kicked,” Judy says. “I wish she could talk and tell us who did it.”

Insurance will replace some of the $30,000 in belongings the Callahans have lost since October. But nothing can restore their sense of safety. The dream house they’re building has become a nightmare and a prison.

“We can’t ever leave because we’ll get robbed,” Rich says. He’s camped out in the unfinished house for a month.

“We know they’re going to come back,” Judy says.

“They know we’ll replace the things they took and they’ll come back for them.”

The Callahans sold their home in Twin Lakes last summer and bought 10 stunning acres west of Athol. Judy works in temporary office jobs. Rich gets disability checks. They live modestly and wanted a retirement home.

They rented a trailer on 10 acres six miles from where they were building and stored their building materials in a shop on the property.

The first burglars hit last fall and took Rich’s pistol collection. Neighbor boys easily found the stolen guns in the woods, which raised suspicions. That time, everything was returned to the Callahans.

On Dec. 21, burglars hit again. Judy had just returned from her father’s funeral. The Callahans’ belongings were split between their two homes.

Burglars kicked open the door to their trailer with such force, they bent it. They came during the day while Judy was at work and Rich was working on their new house.

They took guns and hunting equipment. They emptied Judy’s jewelry box that held her father’s Silver Star, family watches and wedding rings, the Elks Lodge ring that belonged to Rich’s dad.

“How do you put a value on that?” Rich says.

This time, nothing was found but fingerprints. The Callahans kept ready a 12-gauge shotgun burglars apparently hadn’t noticed.

Between these burglaries, things had disappeared from the work site - small items the Callahans discovered missing over time. Apparently the burglars were waiting for the right moment for a big strike.

On Jan. 30, they kicked in the back door to the new house shortly after Rich had gone for the night.

He’d left the television and lights on in the house. The burglars weren’t bothered by either or the outdoor motion detector lights.

“They’re watching us,” Rich says.

They took a compressor, table saws, a 1955 pay phone and a garbage disposal still in its box. They took Judy’s fax machine.

Insurance didn’t cover the losses because the house was under construction. The Callahans’ cabinetmaker quit. Their carpenter, Bill Kaiser, stuck with them, but struggled to replace hundreds of dollars in tools.

“I take paranoia home with me now,” Kaiser says. “Every time I hear a sound, I jump.”

The house had no heat and no rugs, but Rich moved his sleeping bag in. He arranged for someone to stay at the site any time he had to leave.

Judy borrowed a pistol. Living at the trailer without Rich terrified her. She suffered from headaches and broke out in a rash. Rich lost weight.

On Valentine’s Day, Judy planned to cook a nice dinner for Rich in their half-finished home. She called him from the trailer when she was leaving for work. He told her he’d stop by in an hour to get the dog.

By the time he arrived, burglars had taken two televisions, a VCR, stereo, answering machine and boxes of rhinestones that had belonged to the Callahans’ grandmothers. They’d cleaned out the shop.

Judy and Rich ate Top Ramen that night and cried.

“It’s the little things,” Judy says. “The VCR had a story.”

Rich had given it to her. He’d asked what she wanted for her birthday and believed her when she said nothing. She got angry at him when he gave her nothing and told him she really wanted a VCR. He went right out and bought one.

Burglaries are Kootenai County’s top crime, says sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger. Most happen in rural areas. Last year, 59 burglars were caught and sentenced to anywhere from one to 10 years in prison.

Rich would rather shoot them and save others from the torture he and Judy have suffered.

Judy is ready to sell her dream home. Her mother is afraid to come for a visit. Rich wants to build a fence with locking gates and install a closed-circuit television security system. But the burglaries have cost them so much that they don’t even have enough money left to carpet their downstairs.

“It’s more than the stuff they’re taking. We’ve been robbed of our security,” Judy says. “What can we do? How can we live here comfortably?”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo