Colorado family shaken after Aurora home burglarized
An Aurora family is still shaken after their home was burglarized over the weekend. The thieves ran off with nearly $20,000 worth of items, and the family's sense of security.
Nancy Amaya, Warner Huerta, and their daughters were away from their Murphy Creek home when a woman knocked on their door. Just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, she rang the doorbell, sending an alert to the Ring app on Warner's phone. They thought she could've been a neighbor locked out in the arctic freeze.
Warner answered the ring camera, said they weren't home, and asked if she needed something. The woman said "thank you" and walked off.
"That was our first mistake," Nancy said. "We've had a neighbor that's been stuck in the snow before. My husband would gladly go help them. That's just who we are as a community."
As the woman left, a gut feeling told Nancy something wasn't right. She checked the home security cameras inside and discovered something chilling: The living room camera had been flipped upwards.
Nancy went back a few minutes in the footage, and it showed a man breaking in through the kitchen window, and then proceeding to move the camera lens. Luckily, the couple has more cameras in the home that went untouched.
"I see two men dressed fully in black, gloved, ski masks inside the house. And at that point, my heart just sank," Nancy said.
She and Warner called 911 and rushed home, unsure if the intruders were still inside. The burglary took minutes. When APD arrived, the burglars were gone.
When the couple went through their home, they found drawers emptied, cabinets torn open, and their safe was gone. They had stolen valuables, shoes, sunglasses, and even a gold Buddha.
Thieves had also taken passports, Social Security cards, birth certificates, and firearms.
"The guns were in the safe, and they took the safe," Nancy said. "It's concerning for us because now we know 100%, if they try it again to somebody else's house, they're armed."
Video shows the men leaving their backyard and getting into the backseat of a black Jeep.
After checking more surveillance video, Nancy noticed the same Jeep outside hours earlier.
The video also shows a man with a dog exiting the jeep and spending time walking around her street.
"They knew what they were doing," Nancy said. "They targeted our house, but they also looked at my neighbor's place. I think they were just looking for homes with no cars in the driveway, seeing who was home and who wasn't."
Though the material things could be replaced, Nancy says what was truly stolen was their sense of security. Their primary concern is the well-being of their children, who are struggling with the thought of strangers in their home.
"My 4-year-old asked if the robbers are coming back," Nancy said. "My 8-year-old doesn't feel safe. She's like, 'I want to go home mommy, but I'm scared.'"
Investigators are still looking for the suspects and say they're still trying to determine if the woman who rang their doorbell is involved with the burglary. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.
