By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The laptops and copy machine have been replaced. The window has been fixed and the bank accounts frozen.
But peace of mind for Wendy and Mike Snidow, longtime real estate brokers at Coastal Homes & Land in downtown Yachats is still missing.
That’s after burglars broke into their office along Highway 101 late Sunday or early Monday, ransacking the office and making off with a bunch of equipment.
It was a first for them.
“You’re a victim now,” Mike Snidow said Thursday. “We’ve hardly slept since this happened. It gives you a real uncomfortable feeling that there are people out there preying on other people and businesses. It’s unnerving.”
Burglars got in by smashing a window on the north side of the office. They took phones, computer modems, a copier, three laptop computers and checkbooks, said Wendy Snidow. They pulled out desk drawers and left paperwork strewn over the floors. No client data was taken, she said, and company checking accounts were immediately frozen.
“I’ve lived here 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Wendy Snidow said. “It’s pretty much shut us down all week.
On Tuesday a homeless man found a box with their cable company’s router and modem and brought it to the office.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Senior Deputy Barry Bruster said Thursday that there had been two burglaries and one attempted burglary within the past two weeks on King Street, just east of Highway 101.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Abby Dorsey said that commercial burglaries are “rare” and that the burglary of Snidow’s office was “very focused.”
“Hopefully someone will see something that was taken and call us,” Dorsey said.
Anyone with information on the break-in should call the sheriff’s non-emergency number: 541-265-0777.
