We talked to a few of the neighbors, some of whom we had not met previously. Our nearest neighbor's house was the one that burned down and they did not rebuild. The house behind is vacant as far as we know since it is up for sale and no house on the opposite side of ours making it difficult for others to have easily noticed. At the same time, we knew about the other robberies in the area over the last few months and none of them had any idea that had been going on. One of the neighbors we just met lives at the top of the hill up the street and actually has a good view of our place even though he is far. He is retired and is there all the time and offered to keep an eye on the place. We HAD an internet web cam but it died.... Oddly they took NO computer stuff at all, and missed some stuff I have packed up in one closet. We have serial numbers and photos of most of the significant items, but some were family heirlooms and pretty much impossible to replace.
The police say they have considerable information on them as they've employed cheap tactics - approaching houses with a bogus "out of gas" story to see if someone is home. If not, they keep an eye on it and then break in. What they don't have is sufficient information to locate them or even arrest them if they do find them unless they are in possession of stolen property. They say they are not confrontational, so if anyone is around, they won't attempt anything because they know people around here are armed.
So, my entire second system here is gone except my rack, ~400 movies, firearms and thousands of rounds of ammo. We were preparing to buy a gun safe since there had been some break ins in the area, but I wasn't actually able to get up here until this weekend. The little lady typically comes up for half the week or a week on a regular basis, but they hit us between those days. My electronics are all easily replaced and I am not worried about them. It is the personal stuff and the fact that they even did this that gets to me. We're doing fine for now, just figuring things out and still finding little things that are missing.
