The search is on for a burglar - or burglars - who targeted several cars Wednesday morning inside the Meadowbrook neighborhood in Estero. Most of the break-ins happened on Olde Meadowbrook Circle and Coral Bean Court.
The cars broken into were left unlocked, but Jean Jackson said that the door handle of her passenger door handle was broken off - and her credit cards were inside her car at the time.
"The lock is still there, but the handle is totally gone," Jackson said.
After just having gone to some doctor appointments, Jackson had left her cards in the vehicle overnight.
"My Medicaid and Social Security cards and all that were in the car, along with about five credit cards," she said.
Also gone from her car are some prescription sunglasses and a valuable watch - altogether worth about $1,200.
"It seems like all the cars were unlocked," said Manuel Chambers, who also lives on Olde Meadowbrook Circle. "Our car was unlocked, the three across the street were unlocked."
Chambers said nothing valuable was in his wife's car, because he had just cleaned it out prior to having it serviced. However, he said the thieves left a mess.
"They got into the loose change," he said. "They rifled through the middle section, the console of her car."
He said sheriff's office patrol cars lined the normally quiet street Wednesday morning, responding to each individual complaint. It's Chambers' first taste of crime in the family-friendly neighborhood.
"I've been here working on three years, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this back here," he said.
When deputies took the report for the burglary of his wife's car, Chambers said they left them with some advice.
"They made it very clear: lock your car," Chambers said.
