A burglar broke into Justin Coolihan’s home, stealing all of his shoes and a picture of Coolihan with his 2-year-old goddaughter.
The robber left the sandals.
Coolihan is not alone in being the victim of such odd crimes. A serial burglar has been breaking into Newark, Del., homes and stealing only men’s shoes and photographs with men in them. Five homes have had similar break-ins from Dec. 26 to Jan. 3, police said.
“What, like, freaks me out a little bit, like, what are you going to do with a picture of me and a 2-year-old girl in the picture,” Coolihan said. “That’s not, like, good.”
Next door at Rebecca Flanagan’s a similar robbery occurred. The burglar broke in while she and her roommate were on Winter break, stealing photos from a collage. But only the photos with men.
“He somehow cut the locks off and got into the bedrooms and took every picture that had a male, including picture frames, and left all the pictures with females,” said Flanagan.
At one of the homes, the suspect was seen leaving in a yellow Mitsubishi Eclipse with a Delaware registration plate. The burglar was described as 5’9” with an athletic or stocky build, police said.
“This is some type of fetish with shoes and men’s photographs,” said one Newark police officer.
Victim Chris Dillion said that the burglar walked past all of his valuable electronics and went straight for the shoes lined up under the bed.
“It would have been better if they just took the TV instead because pictures and stuff like that can’t be replaced,” said Dillion.
Police said that anyone with information about these burglaries should call Newark Police at (302) 366-7110.
“God knows what he’s doing with all of our shoes and pictures at this particular moment,” Coolihan said.
