EVERETT — Sharon Miller doesn’t use social media.
At 66, she considers herself an ordinary person living in an ordinary house in Everett’s Riverside neighborhood. Her late husband, Bill Miller, bought the place 36 years ago.
Somehow, word got out on social media that she recently was out of state, undergoing treatment for heart and lung problems.
Burglars broke into her home, again and again, even after she returned.
It got so bad that Everett police suggested Miller move out until she gets new doors and upgrades security.
Investigators have counted at least eight separate break-ins, detective Mike Atwood said.
As of Friday morning, police have made 10 arrests, he said.
They’ve also served search warrants at two homes tied to the burglary ring, and they’ve recovered roughly $70,000 of Miller’s property, he said. Multiple teams within the department worked together with crime data analysts, and also received help from Lynnwood police and the Washington State Patrol.
For now, Miller is living at a local motel. Because of the burglaries, she had to come home early from a treatment in Idaho.
Several rings she wore Friday are what little jewelry she had left after the break-ins, though police have recovered some of what was stolen. One of the rings she wore, with a square setting of onyx and diamonds, was a handmade gift from her late husband. Friday would have been their 15th anniversary.
Miller found out about the first burglary from her caregiver, she said.
“The whole house was trashed and the doors were broken in,” Miller said.
Each time the thieves returned, they went through everything again, tossing contents from “every drawer and every cupboard,” she said. She gave up on trying to clean and organize. New locks were cut off. Gates were taken off their hinges.
Miller lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property, including a 200-year-old brooch that belonged to her grandmother.
Two grandfather clocks were taken. One, from the 1700s, was recovered but had been dropped by the crooks and broken into splinters. Also swiped were her stove, antique stove parts and silversmithing works.
“I’m just horrified,” she said.
One item, in particular, she hopes will turn up. It’s the M1911 pistol that was her husband’s grandfather’s service weapon in World War I. He fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood. The pistol is described as having a cracked grip, with notches on the back.
Miller’s case is unusual because of the number of times different crooks were involved, Atwood said. It’s possible it had to do with size of the property, the number of entrances and being tucked away from the road.
During the investigation, detectives would hide in the dark until someone showed up. They’d make an arrest.
“It’d be an hour and another car would come in and start circling the house,” Atwood said. “It was amazing to watch. It was disgusting to watch.”
Detectives now are exploring how leads in the case might connect to other burglaries and burglary rings, Atwood said. He believes the number of arrests will continue to climb.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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