Burglars Enter Child's Room to Steal Games

Tampa Tribune

The burglars were brazen enough to break into an occupied home in a gated community in New Tampa and take a pillow beside a sleeping child, detectives say.

Then, while Kellie Mulligan's family continued to slumber, the thieves used the pillowcase as a sack. In went a Nintendo Wii, video games and "Star Wars" DVDs. A flat screen television was taken from the lanai and in the garage, the suspects — a man and a woman — took diapers and baby wipes before stealing the family's minivan, police say.

"Your kids are supposed to be safe in your own house," Mulligan said of the Oct. 1 burglary at her home in Arbor Greene. "To get close enough to my 3-year-old and take his pillow . . . that's just not OK."

Mulligan said her sense of security is shattered.

"I'm still in a little bit of shock," she said. "It's scary. Stuff is just stuff. But when it comes to your kids, that's a different story."

Tampa police continue to search for the thieves and say they believe the duo attempted to rob nine other homes near Mulligan's that night.

The man is described as black or Hispanic in his 20s and 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a medium build and low-cut hair. He has a tattoo of Old English-style lettering on both forearms and he speaks Spanish.

The woman is Hispanic, in her early 20s and 5 feet 7 inches tall, with a medium build and curly hair. She also speaks Spanish.

Detective Heather Bishop said it troubled her that the suspects entered the child's rooms and took electronics while the boy was asleep several feet away. Mulligan said she, her husband Tom, and their other children ages 6 and 2 did not hear a sound until their 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan was stolen.

The thieves entered the home on the 10000 block of Timberland Point through a sliding glass door that was not firmly locked.

"I've never worked a case like this," Bishop said. "It's extremely disturbing."

The suspects were recorded on security cameras at two stores in West Tampa the next day. The man and the woman are seen with a child walking into a Bealls and Ross near Hillsborough Avenue.

One video shows the couple talking for several minutes with a clerk as they bought hundreds of dollars worth of clothing with Mulligan's credit card, Bishop said.

Witnesses told police the suspects spoke Spanish and the man mentioned to a clerk that his mother lives in Town 'N Country. When they left the Bealls, the suspects were seen entering an older model two-door red vehicle. The car's door panels had a thin chrome strip in the center.

The man and woman were last seen in a blue or gray four-door 1995-2002 Mazda Millenia at the Ross store.

Detectives are not counting out the recession as a factor in the crime.

"Only time will tell if this crime was driven by poor economic times," Bishop said. "But I don't believe the suspect who entered the Mulligans' home is a first-time offender by any means. I feel he's going to have a background in burglary. In an occupied burglary, it's always possible the residents will wake up and the suspect has to be prepared for that."

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