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Christmas Eve Burglary
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Christmas Eve Burglary

Written by KEYT Anchor

Story Created: Dec 26, 2011 at 7:25 PM PDT

Story Updated: Dec 27, 2011 at 9:41 AM PDT

Goleta Valley - It's a Christmas Eve that one family from the Goleta Valley will never forget and not in a good way. The family home was broken into and burglarized. Tonight, a plea for help.

Luckily, the Christmas presents were not taken, but the suspect did make off with jewelry and electronics. The most important items that were allegedly stolen include a wedding ring and a 100GB hard drive, full of photos.

The burglary happened sometime between 6:30 pm and 8 pm Christmas Eve, when the Semenza family went out to dinner. They got home while the suspect was still in the house, but he was able to get out the back door and down the street.

Now the family is posting signs around the community and talking with neighbors to see if anyone may have information. The most important item they want back is the hard drive because it has photos and videos going back to when their six-year old son was a baby.

"You can always buy more jewelry, jewelry it's just an item, its insignificant, its the hard drive we need back," said John Semenza. According to Lyn, " [the hard drive has] irreplaceable family photos from the moment my son was born up until now and so that's just the stuff that we're most interested in getting back. We also had some jewelry taken, I understand the chances of that are pretty bleak but if we could get the hard drive with the photos and just household documents that would mean more to us than anything."

According to the Semenza family, sheriff's deputies came out with a canine moments after the family called 911. Unfortunately, the dog was unable to pick up a scent.

For more information on how to help, call 805-680-2040.

KEY News Reporter Scott Hurst has the story.
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