Burglars found garage door openers in vehicles parked outside two homes in the Greenstone neighborhood late Dec. 4 or early Dec. 5.
They used one device to get into a garage but opted to use a doggy door to gain access to the garage at the other location.
Losses at both scenes were minimal considering what might have occurred – residents were sleeping inside both homes.
A man on Prairie Loop Road told El Dorado County sheriff's deputies that he left his wallet inside his unlocked truck in the driveway. When he went outside the next morning, the wallet was gone along with his garage door opener. A few minutes later he got a call from a neighbor, who said his golf clubs were in the bushes down the road. The clubs had been in the garage.
When the man went to retrieve his clubs, he also found his garage door opener and his wallet, minus about $400 cash.
He also found a purse and its contents strewn along the road. It belonged to a neighbor who also had called the sheriff.
She had gone outside that morning and found the garage door opener from her husband's vehicle on the ground. Her sport-utility vehicle, parked inside the garage, had been broken into.
She told deputies that her garage door is old and noisy and she would have heard it going up. Further investigation indicated the thieves got inside the garage via a dog door designed for larger dogs. The losses included her husband's wedding ring, which she had planned to get repaired, and a designer handbag.
