SARASOTA, Florida -- "When you don't feel safe in your own home anymore, you know, you cant get that back," said Jeanette Schwaed.
Schwaed speaks calmly, but her tears tell a story of fear. Her home was just one of a slew of Sarasota residences burglarized, cops say, by four young women: Caroline Catarzi, Alyssa Conrad, Samantha Smith, and Brandy Kinney.
According to the police report, the gang had an MO. They would knock on the front door and, if no one answered, they would break in through the back. Catarzi and Conrad confessed to cutting the screen and lifting out the window of the Schwaed home.
"I noticed this odd thing sticking out of my curtains in my bedroom and I thought, 'Wow that's odd,' and I noticed that the screen has been mashed," said Schwaed.
Making the situation even more upsetting is the fact the Schwaeds just adopted 5-year-old Jocelyn and the event terrified her.
"They tried to break into my house and that never happened before and that scared me," said Jocelyn.
"I would really love the opportunity to speak with them and tell them what this did to my little girl. It's much more far-reaching than they realize," said Schwaed.
Police say the burglaries all happened in the Southgate community of southern Sarasota, and the gang of burglars were indiscriminate.
"They had an issue with prescription pills. All four abused prescription pills and they were committing these burglaries to support their habit," said Sarasota Police Capt. Paul Sutton.
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