Contents of safe worth over $100,000

In a single night, a Pine City couple lost a lifetime of family heirlooms valued at over $100,000.

Thieves broke into their home Nov. 20 or Nov. 21 and hauled away a green John Deere safe weighing more than 1,100 pounds.

The couple, who wished to remain anonymous, is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the burglar or burglars.

The missing safe contained more than 20 family guns, thousands of silver dollars, a diamond ring, property deeds and rare coins.

“How would you feel if someone broke into your house and took all your personal belongings? ” asked the husband. “You don’t sleep and you don’t eat and everything else. It’s emotional. It’s devastating.”

He said they drove home Nov. 21 after spending a night out. His wife walked down the driveway and came back saying someone had broken in.

The county sheriff’s department has had six leads so far, but none of them led anywhere.

“We had a couple people calling up and saying, ‘Hey, you should check into this person,’” said Sheriff Brett Myers.

The husband said the guns are worth more than $20,000 combined. Some of them came from family members who are now deceased.

Some of the silver dollars dated back to 1878. There were more than 1,000 of them.

The diamond ring belonged to his wife’s mother. He had it appraised in the 1980s, and its value is more than $20,000, he said.

The couple had no insurance on any contents in the safe. The safe itself was insured, and they are currently looking into having it replaced.

Sheriff Myers said he has a hunch they will eventually find the safe, which weighs about 500 or 600 pounds empty. He said he didn’t expect to recover the valuables though.

“There is a good chance this went to some bigger organized crime ring and is definitely no longer in the area,” Myers said.

Myers said the victims do not feel secure any longer in their home.

“You feel violated,” Myers said, comparing the feelings of a victim after a break-in to those of a victim after a physical attack.

Deputy sheriff Robert Goldsby is the lead officer on the case.

The department had one lead on a man up in Spokane, but it turned out he was in jail at the time of the robbery. A few of the leads were for pawn shops in Spokane, none of which led anywhere.

A week after the robbery near Pine City, there was another robbery 25 miles away near Winona. A farmer had several guns laid out on a bed in his home, someone broke in and stole them.

Myers said they don’t yet know if the two crimes are related.

Deputy Randy Zehm is lead officer in the Winona area burglary.