PALMER - It wasn’t the welcome Kimberly Barfield and Matt Millette expected Monday.
They found their Palmer home invaded and ransacked by thieves.
“You can see at the hinges where he snapped it,” Millette said, showing where the thief broke a bedroom door.
Millette, a soldier with the Army National Guard, says the culprit went through every room in the house, snatching up family treasures and memories, like the couple’s engagement rings.
“It was inside here, under the socks, and he took it,” Millette said.
Electronics are also missing, along with a child’s rare baseball collection.
Barfield and Millette say the thief stole their family’s trust.
But more frightening is what it stole from the master bedroom — three guns and an entire drawer of ammunition.
“One of those guns is a handgun and its loaded,” Millette said. “So what happened was the person who is now a burglar left as someone who is armed and dangerous.”
The family is now fighting back — spreading word through the Mat-Su Valley about thieves on the prowl.
“This afternoon I plan on taking flyers to all the neighbors so that they know,” Millette said.
Historically, the Mat-Su Valley has the most break-ins the state.
Troopers recently added a Criminal Suppression Unit just for cases like this one.