Thief bypasses valuables in favor of baby spoons

SEATTLE — ‘What is going on here?!’

That was Tricia Sills' first reaction when she returned from work to her Maple Leaf home about two weeks ago.  Her door was kicked in, all of her drawers and closets rifled through, but apparently nothing was missing.

Tricia could not figure out what was on the intruder's mind.  She called Seattle Police.  They came out to check her house and take a report.  She told an officer she was perplexed because the burglar had left an iPhone, a stereo, and a wallet untouched.

"I said, ‘this is odd, isn't it?’" Tricia recounted about the conversation, "and he said, 'No, not really.’"  He explained to her that there had been a cluster of home burglaries in the area recently, and that they seemed to really be concentrating on precious metal and jewelry.  She said he described a pattern, "they are very targeted, they know what they want, they come and they go," and that they seemed to be in and out of homes in just a few minutes.

KIRO 7 looked up a map created by the Seattle Police Department that plots out dozens of burglaries in the greater Maple Leaf area over the past two weeks. Only some of the full police reports were available, but for the ones that were online, some describe thieves being after silver.

Tricia thought her dog barking in the backyard had scared away the intruder before anything before he could find anything.

But then she noticed something strange:  "I was making my oatmeal the next morning, and I went to get a baby spoon, and they were all gone.  They stole baby spoons," Tricia laughed.

She uses the spoons for portion control -- but she guesses the thief thought they were silver. It cost just a few dollars to replace them, but Tricia wants to get the word out about the burglaries -- because more valuable things may be at stake for someone else, "The whole thing is nuts!"

KIRO