Burglary victims speak out about recent Havre incidents

Many Havre citizens are concerned that the city is becoming less safe.

Law enforcement dispatch logs from the last few weeks have listed vandalism of the library and a nearby business, burglarized restaurants on 5th Avenue, auto thefts and a robbery at Beaver Creek Park, among other incidents.

Residential burglaries are among other incidents that have been reported.

Kellie Ferguson said she installed cameras in her home after she started to believe that someone was stealing her medication, hydrocodone, which she takes for spinal arthritis.

Five days later, July 1, Ferguson said she came home and found her safe picked open and $4,000 and several pills missing from it.

She reported the theft and Hill County Sheriff Don Brostrom confirmed Ferguson’s burglary is under investigation.

Ferguson said her recently-installed cameras helped her and her boyfriend track down the suspects, a man and woman, by matching the car, a green pickup, down to the license plate number.

She said the people she suspects walked out of the Holiday Village Mall with four Herberger’s shopping bags as she waited outside by their car. When confronted, the suspects denied the crimes and got in another car and left, leaving the truck there, she said.

Ferguson said she knows the male suspect from when he answered an ad she’d put out earlier this year for a handyman. She remembers him making excuses and not showing up to fix things.

She said she had been wracking her brain trying to figure out how the burglars got in her house. She said there were no signs of forced entry anywhere. She said her guess, after seeing multiple children in the back of the suspects’ car, was the children.

“I wonder if they’re sticking their kids through the doggy door,” she said.

She proposed the idea to the deputy working on the case, who, she said, thought the idea interesting.

Michelle Donaldson reported the burglary of her home last Tuesday at 2:23 p.m.

She said the intruder, or intruders, picked the lock on the sliding door, got in the house and stole several items. They took electronics such as a computer, DVD player and a television; they also took money, prescription medication and three firearms, she said.

Donaldson said that, looking at the bright side, she was happy the dog wasn’t hurt and that it didn’t run off, considering all the doors were left open after the burglary.

Both Ferguson and Donaldson said they are now a little more worried about their safety. Both said they are keeping their firearms — in Donaldson’s case, the ones she still has — closer by.

Donaldson advised people to report anything suspicious. She said, in hindsight, her neighbors said they remember the same suspicious car parked in the alley behind her house multiple times.

“If you see something, say something,” she said.

Police Chief Gabe Matosich said the Donaldson burglary case is under investigation.

Matosich said the number of reported burglaries this year so far is 24. The total number of burglaries for the last three years was 37 in 2015, and 33 in both 2014 and 2013, he said.

Although this year’s reported burglary numbers by the police department indicate that Havre is on track to have more burglaries than in each of the last three years, Matosich said that by the end of the year, he’d be willing to bet those numbers will be equal to or less than in previous years.

Matosich said there are several things people can do to prevent future break-ins.

First and foremost, lock up when leaving the house, he said. Neighbors should communicate with each other and keep an eye out for suspicious activity at each other’s homes when the other is not home. When leaving town, people can let the police department know so officers can drive by the homes and check things out while they’re gone. And get involved in a neighborhood watch program. If people have questions on how to do that, Matosich said, they can contact Sgt. Ryan Pearson at the police station.