By Lisa Williams Ackley

Staff Writer

HARRISON — An 80-year-old couple, whose garage was burglarized Sunday night as they slept in their house on Temple Hill Road, wants to warn others to be vigilant.

Their names are not being made public, but they want people to know what happened to them and to make sure others are warned.

“Thieves have broken into three places here on Temple Hill Road, and one on Deer Hill Road, recently,” the husband said. “They broke into our garage and took an outboard motor, an air compressor, fishing tackle and my bow and arrows that are worth about $500. They stole around $3,000 worth of stuff from us. The Maine State Police were here with their K-9 dog. They also broke into my brother’s place next door and took some stuff.”

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office is investigating these nighttime burglaries and had to call in a State Police K-9, as theirs were in a training session on Monday.

The husband had gone to bed, but his wife fell asleep in a chair in their living room with the lights on, she said.

“Our neighbor said their dog started barking around 3 a.m. (Monday morning),” the husband said.

The family has owned a home on Temple Hill Road since 1964, and they retired there almost 30 years ago, after he took an early retirement. Their home has a sophisticated alarm system, but their garage does not. Not yet, anyway.

“I’m having an alarm system installed in the garage,” he said.

“This is the sixth time we have been broken into since we have lived here,” the wife said. “I fell asleep in my La-Z-Boy last night,” she said late Monday afternoon. “My husband almost had a heart attack!”

The husband said the police K-9 followed a track that led to Island Pond.

“They’ve been working this area,” he said, referring to the brazen thieves who skulked about his yard and property under the light of a full moon early Monday morning.

No veggies for these thieves

The couple noted that the thieves had the audacity to pick a few Swiss chard before they departed.

“They left a dozen Swiss chard and a pepper on the stonewall,” the husband said.

Both he and his wife recently celebrated their eightieth birthdays, and he fought for his country in the Korean War.

“We just had our eightieth birthdays,” he said. “It’s not a happy thing, when you fight for your country — I was over in Korea — and you come back and are treated like this — like mud.”

“It’s terrible, when you have to live under lock and key, when you’re 80 years old,” he stated further. “Those kind of people (who broke into his garage) — they live off other people like leeches.”

“Please put a reminder for people to be vigilant, so someone might catch some of these jokers,” he said.

Anyone with information on these burglaries is asked to call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at (207) 774-1444.