Thieves Use Kids In Chimney Burglaries

BARTO, Pa. - Burglars are using an unusual tactic to get into homes in Berks County - children.

One Barto man says the bandits put a child down his chimney to gain access, reported Fox 29's Nefertiti Jaquez.

Jim Johannes is warning his neighbors to be on alert.

"I don't want it to happen to other people. They need to wake up and realize that we're being targeted," says Johannes.

He believes residents should be on the lookout for unfamiliar people lurking in the hilly country roads of Barto.

"Somebody has violated my house," says Johannes.

The Kulps Road resident says thieves robbed his restored farmhouse of $30,000 worth of guns, jewelry, and cash, back on March 12.

The thieves method, he says, is a bit unusual.

"They went up there thinking that they could go down through the chimney, lower a child or a small person down through the chimney, unlock the doors, do their robbery," says Johannes.

But when they couldn't enter that way, because the chimney is plastered shut, they broke in through a window.

What concerns Jim the most is that this isn't the first time it's happened in the area.

There have been a string of robberies where thieves use chimneys as a way to break in.

To make matters worse, the closest police station is nearly 30 miles away.

"The thieves could back a 28-foot truck, Ryder truck, unload the house into it, send out for Dominos for a pizza, have a couple beers, get back into the truck after they had dinner and leave and the police still wouldn't be here," says Johannes.

So now, Jim is fighting to get a police station built in Barto. "I have totally lost my sense of security; I have no reason to believe that I won't come home in the dark and have somebody waiting for me."

Fox 29 tried contacting township officials about the closest police station being 30 miles away in reading, but we got no answer.