A Tween Lakes homeowner could use the public’s help in identifying three men who burglarized his home.
The thieves made off with an estimated $10,000 worth of possessions along with sentimental items in a robbery Feb. 27 and then returned March 10 and stole more property valued at around $3,300.
Tween Lakes is a subdivision about 12 miles northeast of Durango near Lemon Reservoir.
“I’m pretty shaken,” said homeowner Lawrence Haddow. “I’m a veteran, a combat veteran with PTSD and this has really triggered me in a lot of ways. I just feel violated. They took a bunch of weapons from me. They took tools and they took some stuff that really meant a lot to me that I inherited from my dad.”
Haddow has been staying up all night hoping to catch the thieves if they return. He did the same thing after the first robbery.
“But then I let my guard down and went into town to spend the weekend with my girlfriend,” he said. “And sure enough they hit me again. I’m just pretty shaken. And I’m pretty upset because the value of what they took is not all going to be covered by my homeowners insurance. Plus I have a deductible. So I’m gonna take a financial hit.”
The silver lining is the trail camera footage Haddow captured during the second robbery March 10. At least one image shows a bald man with glasses.
“I actually had some trial cams up during that first robbery but the batteries weren’t charged,” Haddow said. “I’ve been kicking myself for that. But after the first robbery I replaced the trail cam that they stole and bought another good one. And they stole one of them.”
Haddow believes the thieves saw the flashing red light on the camera they stole the second time, but did not see the trail cam he had located at a higher vantage point.
Haddow, who has been doing construction on half his home to create a rental unit, said there were no signs of forced entry during the first burglary. He suspects he may have left a side-door unlocked. They broke a window on a door to gain access during the second burglary.
Only one clear set of tracks were left in the fresh snow around his house after the first burglary. There were three sets of tracks after the second burglary.
“The first (burglary) it was mostly weapons that were stolen,” Haddow said. “They took the whole safe. They took other stuff but it seems like they found the safe and focused on that. And I think it was just one person, the taller skinny guy in the pictures. I think it was just him because I could only find one set of prints. I might have seen a second set, but it was hard to tell. But it was definitely one set of big work boots that look like the same ones he was wearing during the second burglary.”
Haddow’s house is pretty remote, with one neighbor about a half a football field away and another a full football field distance, he said.
No one saw anything beyond a suspicious looking silver Jeep that was spotted in the area several times as well as in Haddow’s driveway.
“It looked like an old Wrangler or something,” Haddow said. “It was a short two-door with round headlights and what looked like New Mexico plates because there’s no plate in front.”
The second robbery happened between the hours of 11:04 p.m. and 11:47 p.m., according to the time stamp on the camera footage.
“Like I said, I am pretty devastated by what they took from me,” Haddow said. “Not only the physical things but also the intangible things they stole, like my sense of security. It’s really rattled my nerves. I’m just so furious. But luckily I have a good therapist who’s trying to help me work through some of this stuff and not get stuck.”
In addition to the weapons and things inherited from his father, the thieves made off with tools, chain saws, a drone, a thermal-imaging device and other random stuff which included his dart board.
At the suggestion of his girlfriend, Haddow has created a GoFundMe account “in hopes that some generous people might help me make up the difference,” he said in a follow up email. The GoFundMe account can be found by searching for Tween Lakes Burglary Relief Fund.
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is investigating both burglaries.
“The camera footage is a really important lead,” said La Plata County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Pat Downs. “We are gathering leads and the investigation is moving forward right now.”
The Sheriff’s Office received 37 burglary reports during the last six months of 2022 and three in February this year, Downs said.
Durango Police Department statistics of burglaries within city limits from 2018 through February of this year are as follows: 60 in 2018; 84 in 2019; 114 in 2020; 85 in 2021; 55 in 2022; seven in January 2023; and two in February 2023.
Anyone with information about the Tween Lakes burglaries is asked to contact investigators at the Sheriff’s Office at (970) 840-0655.
gjaros@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story misstated the number of thieves believed to be involved in the second burglary.
