Fake Delivery Knock Comes Before $70,000 Milpitas Burglary

A man carrying an open cardboard box walked up to a Milpitas home in the middle of the afternoon, knocked, and waited. When nobody answered, surveillance video shows him appearing to send a message before walking away.

Roughly 20 minutes later, two masked people came through a side gate, broke a rear sliding glass door, and entered the house. Homeowner Donna Kato was out of town.

By the time they left, her safe was gone. Kato told ABC7 News that it held more than $70,000 in jewelry and other valuables, along with passports, birth certificates, and family heirlooms from her mother.

The alarm never summoned police. Kato said the intruders disconnected her modem after entering, knocking her Ring cameras offline as well.

A Knock First

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The burglary happened Sept. 16, according to a case page published by private investigator Marc Hinch, whom Kato hired after the break-in.

Hinch wrote on Stolen 911 that the first person approached the home at about 1:40 p.m. wearing what he described as an Amazon blue vest and carrying a box. He also pointed to a distinctive tattoo visible on the back of the person’s upper left arm.

The surveillance sequence aired by ABC7 shows the man at the door around 2:14 p.m. carrying an already-open box. No package was left behind.

After he walked away, two other people wearing hats, glasses and masks arrived in a vehicle and went through an unlocked side gate.

They shattered the sliding glass door at the back of the house and went inside.

Kato said they were gone in less than 10 minutes.

The Safe Leaves

The intruders ransacked the house and removed the safe, according to Kato.

Inside was jewelry she had accumulated over years, including pieces given to her by her mother. Passports, birth certificates, and other personal documents were also inside.

“What was hurtful is that I lost all the heirloom jewelry that my mom had given me,” Kato told ABC7.

Hinch’s case page identifies several of the missing pieces, including a family diamond and emerald necklace, a wedding ring belonging to Kato’s mother, a vintage Omega diamond bracelet watch and other gemstone jewelry.

He also wrote that the safe had not been bolted down and was taken from a bedroom closet.

Kato believed her security system would protect the house while she was away. Instead, she said, disconnecting the modem prevented the alarm from calling police and caused her cameras to go offline.

“I could have been home,” she told ABC7. “My personal safety was jeopardized I feel and the whole neighborhood feels that way.”

A Longer Trail

The vehicle seen at the home may have been moving through Milpitas well before the break-in.

ABC7 reported that a Milpitas police report showed the same vehicle captured by a license plate reader entering the city about two hours before the burglary and leaving minutes afterward.

Hinch provided a more detailed timeline from his review of the case. He described the vehicle as a dark blue or black Chevrolet Cruze and wrote that license plate reader records placed it entering Milpitas on Dixon Landing Road at 11:48 a.m., reaching the neighborhood shortly before the burglary and leaving the area after the safe was taken.

He said the vehicle was later tracked toward Fremont and then back toward San Jose.

Hinch believes the occupants may have spent that gap looking for a house that appeared empty. That is his assessment of the vehicle movements, not a conclusion publicly announced by Milpitas police.

He released the surveillance footage in hopes someone would recognize the person with the visible arm tattoo or identify the missing jewelry.

Several Leads

Hinch also recommended hardwired security cameras and keeping safes away from bedrooms and offices, places he said burglars commonly search.

For Kato, the loss extends beyond the estimated dollar value. Some of the stolen jewelry had been handed down through her family and cannot simply be replaced.

Milpitas police told ABC7 that the department was investigating several leads in the case but had no additional updates to release.