When Trevor Matson, 13, stepped off a school bus Thursday afternoon, he found the front door open at his home near Northeast 162nd Avenue and Ward Road, east of Orchards.
“He went to the Christmas tree and said, ‘Oh my gosh, the presents are gone!’” said his mother, Renee Matson.
But that wasn’t the half of it, as the family found later.
Burglars took many of the family’s possessions, said Sgt. Bill Roberts with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Sometime between noon and 3:30 p.m. Thursday, when Trevor arrived home, thieves made off with three laptop computers, expensive video game systems and games, cameras, portable DVD players, binoculars, even a jar of change, the mother said.
“All my jewelry,” Renee Matson said. “My room was totally ransacked. We literally got totally wiped out. I can’t believe this happened. It’s a very nice neighborhood.”
Renee Matson, the single mother of Trevor and Titus, 8, said she’d been at her job with a health systems company at the time.
She said a deputy told her the thieves used a credit card to open the front door; the deadbolt hadn’t been fastened.
“They said it was professionals who knew what they were doing. They were in quick and they were out.”
Now, she said, “I’m afraid they’ll come back.”
Renee said she has renter’s insurance, but is overwhelmed with the theft and its timing a week before Christmas.
She said she visited the Craigslist Web site and found an expensive game system like hers advertised for sale, and called the seller in Kelso. “I said, ‘Can you verify the serial number?’ and he hung up.”
Folks at Heritage Church in Hazel Dell are trying to help.
The church’s answering machine has a message saying someone will be there to accept donations for the Matson familly from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday.
The church’s address is 417 N.E. 65th St., east of Hazel Dell Avenue. The phone number is 360-694-7181.
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
