Serial burglar eludes Newton police

2016 may finally be the year to lock your doors in Newton.

A serial burglar surfaced in mid-September, and 16 reported crimes later, he still has not been apprehended, according to the Newton Police Department.

“It’s not the biggest crime Newton’s ever had or ever will have – it’s just like a thorn that won’t go away,” Newton police Lt. Scott Powell said.

What police know:

▪ The burglar primarily gains entry to homes through open garage doors and unlocked glass sliding doors.

▪ He has never forced entry into a home.

▪ Only three times has he been seen by people inside the home.

▪ Most often he will enter the house and empty purses and wallets of any cash before leaving. He has been known to take only cash.

▪ He has been described as roughly 5-foot-8, 200 pounds and in his 50s or 60s, with “shaggy gray hair and a scruffy gray beard.”

What police don’t know: Who he is, where he is from, and why he is doing this.

“Aggravated battery is a pretty serious crime,” Powell said. “The risk/reward is crazy. For $20, you’re doing this?”

The burglar is last suspected of burglarizing a home Jan. 7, and police think he will strike again.

“I’m hoping we catch him before a homeowner does,” Powell said. “That confrontation could end badly.”

Powell said police had thought he would enter only homes that were unoccupied, but on Dec. 19, he broke from that habit.

The burglar entered a home in south Newton while a family was watching TV in their basement shortly before 9 p.m., Powell said.

The homeowner, hearing footsteps above, confronted the man. Before the burglar could flee, the homeowner punched him in the face.

While the homeowner was “trying to choke him out,” his wife came upstairs and grabbed a butcher knife, Powell said.

The burglar then retreated to a corner and grabbed a knife as well, Powell said.

The wife then retrieved a gun from a bedroom, after which the burglar ran out the door.

The man followed the burglar to his car and began beating on the passenger-side window with his gun until the car pulled away, Powell said.

He did not get the license plate information on the car.

Vicki Lichti said Newton is “absolutely a safe town,” despite her home being burglarized within the past three weeks.

“It’s Newton, Kansas – you don’t have to lock your garage doors,” said Lichti, 68. “We always did, but a lot of people don’t. That seemed to be OK.”

She said she and her husband, both retirees, have left their garage door open overnight twice in the past 13 years. One of those nights was Jan. 7.

That night, the burglar entered her home, stole about $10 to $20 cash from her purse and fled, Lichti said.

Lichti now double-checks that her doors are locked every night, though she said she may “ease up” on that over time.

“I feel like we have to be more vigilant. … If we’re downstairs in the basement family room, feeling like I need to make sure the doors are locked if we’re not going to be on the first floor,” she said.

“There’s kind of a loss of trust that I’m not happy about, and I don’t really want to live this way.”

This is not the first time Newton police have dealt with a serial burglar, though this burglar has persisted the longest.

“It’s been a constant since September that we’ve been dealing with this,” Powell said. “Our patrol guys take it personal when it happens on their watch.

“Not to mention a lot of us live in the areas that he’s hitting, so it’s personal.”

Once he is caught, there comes the task of trying to connect him with all the burglaries he is suspected of perpetrating. Powell said the Newton Police Department will submit all the reports to the Harvey County attorney, who will then decide whether to file charges.

Powell’s best advice for Newtonians?

Lock your doors. Close your garage doors.

If you are lying in bed trying to remember whether you locked all the doors, “just get up and check,” he said.

Newton police officers have taken to waking people overnight if their garage door is up, he said.

Despite the publicity the burglar has received in local media, officers still find anywhere from six to 15 garage doors open every night, Powell said.

“It’s been on Facebook, the TV news stations, and it’s been in our local paper almost weekly,” he said. “It’s almost like an uphill battle with this.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Serial burglar eludes Newton police."