MCDONALD Losing savings shakes family

The family doubts it will see the money again but seeks a sense of security.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
McDONALD -- When 2000 approached, Stacy and Jeffrey Doyle heeded the warnings like so many others. The couple took the money they had been savings for years out of the bank.
They decided to keep the money at home, where they believed it would be safe.
"Everyone kept saying, 'Get your money out of the bank,'" Stacy Doyle said. "We did, and just never got around to putting it back in."
That decision proved costly last November, when someone broke into the family's Illinois Avenue home and took more than $36,000 in cash from a strongbox. With few leads, and results from fingerprinting tests still at least several weeks away, the Doyles are hoping someone may have noticed something that day that would help police.
What happened
According to police reports, someone forced open a window at the back of the two-story house to gain access to an enclosed porch, between 9 and 11 a.m. Nov. 14.
"Just a few days before that, my son had broken a pane of glass in the door between the porch and the house," Stacy said. "They just pushed out the cardboard and unlocked the door to get inside."
Though there was some snow on the ground, there were no footprints throughout the house, which has cream-colored carpet, Stacy says.
And, reports show, nothing else in the house was disturbed. Only the cash, all kept in bank envelopes, was missing. Stacy said family members never told anyone else the money was there, and she assumes whoever entered the house simply went straight to the bedroom to look for jewelry or other valuables.
"Of course, once they found the box with the money, there was no need to go looking for anything else," she said.
Fingerprints taken
Village police were able to lift fingerprints from the outside window that was forced open, and sent them to the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification for testing. But an overabundance of fingerprinting tests and open investigations has the state agency behind as much as six months, Stacy said police told her.
The Doyles haven't given up hope that someone in the area saw something that would help police. Stacy said she doubts they will ever see the money again, but finding the people responsible would go a long way toward the family regaining a sense of security.
"Not knowing who was in our house, regardless of what was taken, is a crime in itself," she said.
Anyone with information on the theft is asked to contact the McDonald Police Department at (330) 530-5472.
slshaulis@vindy.com