Man despondent over stolen home
Friday, August 1, 2003
(08-01) 01:29 PDT BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) --
Thieves did more than just break into B.J. Miller's 20-by-40-foot
rural home and make off with a few precious items -- they made off
with the whole house.
Authorities said it probably took at least a day, probably more, for
someone to deconstruct Miller's home near Placerville and take it
away, well pump and generator included.
The thieves even took a 2,600-gallon water tank. All that remains now
is a tool shed and the pads upon which the house once stood and a
small photograph of a barnyard animal.
"They didn't just steal something. They stole his life," neighbor Kent
Walton told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Miller currently lives in Berkeley. The retired engineer was setting
up the home over the past few months as a vacation getaway place for
his family.
"The whole thing has been shocking and heartbreaking," Miller said,
putting the total loss at about $200,000.
He's put up hundreds of posters with photos of the home, hoping
someone will tip him off if the thieves try to sell the goods. But
neighbors are still amused at how it all happened.
"It gets me that they got by me," said Laurel Fulton, a retired nurse
and neighbor in the Cosumnes Acres area. "I should have noticed a
truck going by with a big house in the back."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/01/state0429EDT0032.DTL&type=printable
Bunwell
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