Some Pretty Amazing News

Jennifer and I went in today to identify some further items at the Martinez Police Department that had been collected on a second search warrant at the home of the fence.

Or so we thought.

When we arrived, the sergeant walked us through to a (to us) new area, and into the evidence room. He then had us start identifying real items and matching them up with the pictures we had already looked at. In the middle of this, he comes in and says, "Now a lot of stuff was just dumped into a backpack. Some of it we took pictures of, but some was all tangled up so I'll have you look at it now."

As he came back into the room, I said,. "Well, that's my backpack," and we all kind of chuckled over them using that. We hadn't even noticed it missing. We went through the envelopes that were in the backpack, most of which we had already identified, and then we dumped out the unphotographed envelope. And there was most of the rest of our jewelry.

So as far as we have been able to identify, all of the jewelry will be coming back except for Jennifer's birthday butterfly necklace, a moonstone necklace that her grandmother gave her, and my diamond earring that my parent's gave me from dad's cuff link.

Also while we were talking, the sergeant asked us again when the robbery had happened. He mentioned that when they went in, most of the items were in the backpack or in a woman's purse. Some were one the suspects, and some were spread out on the table being appraised by the fence. I told him again that the burglary was the morning of Thursday, October 28. He then said that their raid was that evening.

We pieced it together that while I was walking through my home with the county sheriff, the sergeant and his people were already recovering most of my stolen property. If the raid had happened on any other day, we likely would never have seen this stuff again.

We didn't end up looking at pictures as the only things they found in the second search of the premises were watches.

As we were finishing up, we asked how long until we would be able to get our property back. He said they are making the case, and are hoping for four convictions: the fence and the three suspects who are believed to have performed the break-in themselves. He thinks it will be another two weeks before he presents the case to the district attorney. At that point, he can ask if the photographs of the evidence will be sufficient, or if the actual items will need to be present for a possible trial. So I'm holding out hope for a return by Christmas.

I also asked if we might be subpoenaed for the trial, and he said that he could testify for us at any hearing having been present at the raid. In the event of a trial, then there would be the possibility of a subpoena.

So, almost everything is nice and safe in Martinez, and locked up. But soon, we'll have almost all of it back.