When the owner of a Chantilly mobile home came home from work and discovered intruders had broken in and stolen her stuff, she was understandably upset. She was also savvy enough to call police and tell them who she thought did it.
AS A RESULT of their investigation, Fairfax County police charged her next-door neighbors, Marcia Kim Fitzgerald, 46, and Kenneth Dean Miller, 38, with burglary and grand larceny, respectively. And Monday, April 10, in Circuit Court, Miller pleaded guilty as charged. Fitzgerald is due to plea April 25.
The incident occurred Nov. 15, 2005 in the Dulles Meadows community, off Route 50. Police Det. Mitchell Motafches explained the details in a Nov. 17 affidavit to search Fitzgerald's and Miller's double-wide trailer in the 14500 block of Iberia Circle.
He wrote that a side-door window of the victim's trailer was smashed to gain entry and, once inside, the thieves went to town. They snatched everything from Martha Stewart bath towels to a George Foreman grill, an antique .22-caliber handgun, a DVD player and an assortment of jewelry.
Also taken were paper towels and soap, deli meats, canned tuna, sirloin steaks, frozen vegetables, Kraft Miracle Whip, Fritos corn chips, Kit Kat bars and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Knowing Fitzgerald and Miller were both unemployed and about to be evicted, wrote Motafches, the victim told police they were probably the culprits.
When police searched the couple's home, they seized items including a cigarette case with the victim's initials, two Kit Kat bars and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups wrapper.
They also confiscated the suspects' trash, reportedly finding "numerous items ... that matched property missing from the victim's home." One of them, wrote Motafches, was "a receipt for jewelry [that] included the victim's name and signature."
In court Monday, Judge Gaylord Finch accepted Miller's plea and set sentencing for May 26.