Police are investigating attempted break-ins and theft at the Haines Senior Village after a resident’s checks were stolen from their apartment and later cashed.
“It looks like those checks were taken from a residence and were then cashed,” police sergeant Josh Dryden said. “A very large sum of money was taken out of that account. We’re actively investigating that.”
Three days after the checks went missing, residents woke up to the sound of multiple car alarms going off and they later found pry marks on several vehicles. Resident Susan Tandy said she wasn’t even aware her car had an alarm.
“As an alarm started going off in the middle of the night, I didn’t even realize that the noise was coming from my car,” she wrote.
The attempted break-ins and theft come weeks after the Senior Center, which is across the street from the senior housing complex, was burglarized in early March. Someone broke into the office window and stole several hundred dollars, personal checks and pyramid-shaped $2 bills that police suspect were later spent at a marijuana retail store. That investigation is still ongoing, Dryden said.
The area has multiple security cameras which police are reviewing, Dryden said.
“People cut through that area all the time,” Dryden said. “Lock your vehicles. Lock your doors. I know not everybody wants to do that in Haines.”
Haines Senior Village property manager Shannon Dryden said they’ve created an identification system and vendor log in response to the crimes which will require anyone performing services on the property will be required to log the time, date and purpose of their business.
“(We) are alert and aware now. It is so sad to imagine the desperation of someone within our community,” she said. “Preying on the vulnerable group is just unconscionable. There’s a lot of things we’ve got going on over here. They need to knock it off.”