Bend burglary string hits close to home

Multiple car and home burglaries were reported over the holiday weekend in the Awbrey Butte area in northwest Bend. One of those cars broken into was that of NewsChannel 21’s Samantha O’Connor so she looked into the string of crimes.

Bend resident Valerie Hester was on the phone in her bedroom when she first heard the sounds Friday night.

“I heard footsteps and I thought it was my son,” Hester recalled Monday.

Her son, Tanner, was staying at a friend’s house. Hester assumed he’d come home to pick something up.

She says it didn’t sound like sneaking around.

“They weren’t trying to be quiet. There was a lot of clunking going on downstairs,” Hester said.

Tanner came home the next morning and, shortly after, a neighbor stopped by to say he saw a purse outside in their yard.

“I just kind of walked over and saw it and climbed down the rocks, and everything was all scattered out,” Tanner said.

So he gathered it all up and went inside.

“He came in with my purse, and then we starting putting things together and I said, ‘You came home last night, right?’ and he said, ‘No.’ So that’s when I knew,” Hester said.

Her family home of 13 years had been broken into.

“I felt really violated and, you know, the panic really rose up inside,” Hester said.

Even with the family’s dogs and living in a quiet neighborhood, the unfortunate incident happened.

“You get complacent, you feel like all your neighbors are around and you feel safe. But now I don’t,” Hester said.

She refuses to give into the fear.

“I’m not going to allow someone else’s callous and insensitive violation of my privacy to destroy the comfort level that I feel in my own home,” Hester said.

Instead, she’s using the scare to remind the community to be extra-vigilant.

“It is a safe community, but I think we need to not let our guard down,” Hester said.

If you have any information that could help police make an arrest, you’re asked to contact Bend police at 541-693-6911.