HONOLULU -- An Oahu couple returned home from vacation to Europe to find out that someone gained access to their home and all of their financial information.
While they were out of the country someone was living in their home, draining their bank accounts and ringing up their credit cards.
The couple said it's been one week of hell. They are in the middle of unraveling a mystery of how people they don't know could move into their apartment and manage to cover their tracks for at least a month.
The couple lived in the Horizon View Tower in Salt Lake. It's a secured apartment in a high-rise building. That didn't stop thieves from making themselves at home. The thieves even told the building manager they were house-sitting for the tenants.
The woman who lives in the apartment asked KITV 4 News to identify her only by her first name, Eliska.
"They stole my soul. They stole our savings. They drove away with our belongings in our vehicle. What else can they take from you?" Eliska said.
"I'm an immigrant and I did not have a lot of things in my life; only family jewelry, family china for 200 years, some crystal for more than 100 years," Eliska said.
Inside, the thieves left the apartment ransacked. Paperwork littered the floor in every room. A number of items in the home were left broken.
"It's not stealing the things. Why do you have to trash my place? It was my home. I love Hawaii. It was home. Now, I feel I don't belong anyplace anymore," Eliska said.
Eliska said when credit card companies called the apartment to ask about the "unusual charges," the thieves assured the companies that everything was fine.
Eliska said the thieves also found financial information about her son and ex-husband and ruined their credit too.
Copyright 2005 by
TheHawaiiChannel.com
All rights reserved.
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
