Woman has two locked cars stolen from her home

By Susan Raff

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    BRANFORD, Connecticut (WFSB) — Having your car stolen may not seem like the worst thing, but for a Branford woman, it has been a nightmare.

Eyewitness News has heard a lot about an increase in car thefts. It has been the talk at the state capitol.

In this case, Sandy Kraus did nothing wrong, yet she has been victimized twice.

Sadly, her home is heavily secured and she’s still living in fear.

If you think your home is safe, wait to hear what happened to Sandy.

“We were both home, I was asleep upstairs my husband had fallen asleep,” she said.

While her husband was sleeping in a chair two juveniles found her car locked in the driveway, so they broke into their garage.

“They used just a flat thing, lock smith says it literally took seconds,” she said.

They got inside the house and then moved into the kitchen and on the counter was Sandy’s purse and the keys to the car were inside.

“Police knocked on our door at 4:30 in the morning because somebody called that there was suspicious activity and they had reported my license plate,” Sandy said.

Her car had been stolen. It was a brand-new Audi with only 2,000 miles.

If you thought having one car stolen was traumatic, how about two?

One year before, Sandy had another car, also locked, stolen from her driveway.

She says both cars were used in robberies.

“There’s no other word to describe it other than it’s frightening, we’ve had our alarm system beefed up, we now can’t leave our bedroom at night because the whole house is so alarmed,” Sandy said.

Her Audi was trashed.

When police found it, all five airbags had gone off, and the sides were smashed in.

“The rugs were burned from cooking of the meth,” Sandy said.

A spike in car thefts during the pandemic has created fear, and has mobilized community groups who want tougher penalties for repeat offenders.

Republican lawmakers say we need more deterrents, including for juveniles.

While car thefts are considered “property crimes,” to Sandy they’re much more important than that.

Her husband bought the Audi for her.

“To celebrate the fact that I had survived basically un-survivable cancer for 20 years so it was a gift,” she said.

Now her fight is with the insurance companies.

Sandy has been without her car for five months. She was given $1,000 to rent one but that lasted 20 days.

“Everyone is telling me it should be totaled,” Sandy said.

She says the insurance company won’t total it, or guarantee the new air bags will work, and says her insurance doesn’t want to pay for all the repairs.

It’s a battle she fights every day, on top of living in fear.

Even on a hot summer day, the windows are always locked. This is what she wants you to know.

“When they’re bold enough to come back again and see the car is clearly locked and break into a home with weapons we have gone to the next level,” Sandy said.

It’s been a nightmare and it’s gotten worse. Sandy says her insurance company has dropped some of her coverage because her cars have been stolen.

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