A Marsh Landing resident has reported that nearly $300,000 in jewelry, coins and cash was stolen from his Harbour Island home on Saturday, according to a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office report.
The homeowner residing on Harbourmaster Court reported the burglary Saturday afternoon after he returned home and realized that someone had forcefully entered his home and taken a safe containing the valuables. According to the report, the victim told deputies that this is the second burglary at his house in two years, with the first taking place in July 2016. The victim’s house is in Harbour Island, which is a smaller area of larger homes inside the gates of Marsh Landing, situated on an island bordering the Intracoastal Waterway near the south gate of the community.
The victim believes the person responsible for the crime entered the house by breaking a window in the back of the property and unlocking another. The report states that the suspect ransacked an upstairs jewelry hutch, which is the same hutch that was looted during the first reported incident in 2016.
“It definitely appears that the suspect knew to look in that location,” SJSO Deputy Lawrence Dixon wrote in the report.
The victim told deputies that he believed the burglar used the house’s elevator to transport the safe because of its size and weight, and exited out the front door, which was unlocked.
While canvassing the surrounding area, authorities said a neighbor told them she noticed a small, white delivery truck that she thought was a FedEx truck traveling quickly down the street when the victim wasn’t home. According to the report, the neighbor remarked that this was odd because a different FedEx delivery truck stopped at her house shortly after and delivered a package. Another neighbor reported seeing a white SUV with tinted windows the day of the first burglary in 2016 but didn’t see anything during the most recent incident.
SJSO’s investigation is ongoing.
