Normal Heights neighbors are coming together to help fight crime in their own backyard after surveillance cameras caught a couple of burglars who are still being sought by police.
The home invasion happened on Madison near 40th Street. The victim is hoping that the video evidence, her neighbors’ vigilance and the hard work of local police will help her get a prized possession back.
Valentina Lunati was on vacation with her husband when she got word their home had been burglarized. Her neighbor’s surveillance cameras caught two people scaling their brick wall and hop into their backyard early in the morning on Aug. 26.
Seeing video of evidence of the crime left her feeling violated and dampened the vacation vibes she was enjoying in Mexico.
“It’s your private space and someone enters. Yea, It feels a little bit violated,” Lunati said.
“When you see it on the video it’s like ‘That’s my house.’ We thought we might cut [the vacation] short and come back but we decided to not do that,” she added.
Glaring lights inside the home and metal bars fortifying the windows weren’t enough to keep burglars at bay. Lunati said the burglars had tools strong enough to cut the bars away.
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They made off with a laptop, tablet and a prized possession of her husband’s, who moonlights as a musician -- an Antonio Aparicio Spanish classical guitar.
“He’s played classical guitar all his life. So that's one he'd bought when we first moved to the U.S. We went to New York and got this really nice guitar,” Lunati said.
Video shows one of the suspects, after they’d secured multiple bags filled wsith the Lunatis things, escape into the alley what looks like a guitar case. Right on his heels is someone else on a bike, a person police believe was a spotter,
San Diego Police Department investigators have been to the home to take fingerprints and interview neighbors. Since the burglary, the Lunatis have installed cameras of their own.
The couple is thankful no one was hurt, and now they’re hoping they can get lucky and find some of their stolen property at pawn shops and on websites like Craigslist and OfferUp.
