What a horrible feeling ... such violation ... intrusion, and profound sadness. Not exactly the emotions we expected to feel before the greatest celebration of the year.

Being burglarized two days before Christmas was not what our family expected either!

We moved to SeaTac almost 15 years ago because of affordable home prices, the schools and the nice community environment it provided for our young family.

Our hearts have been deeply saddened by the recent burglaries in our home and other homes in our neighborhood-single-family homes burglarized and precious belongings along with carefully chosen Christmas gifts stolen from families who, like ours, work hard for the things they have.

I am perplexed as to why someone would choose to be so heartless, so insensitive and so uncaring to steal from a home at any time of the year, let alone Christmastime.

If only they could feel a little bit of what it is like being on this side of the burglary, or to look in the eyes of one of their victims and see the tears and sense the heartache.

Possessions have been snatched out of our family that can never be replaced-a video camera including the tape recording of our daughter's high school graduation, jewelry (though not valuable) that belonged to my deceased mother, father and grandmother, and lovely, sentimental things exchanged between my wife and I over the past 28 years.

I urge SeaTac residents to be alert to suspicious activity in your neighborhoods. Hold dear that old fashioned value of looking out for your neighbor. Lock your doors, protect your property-no matter how safe we might feel our neighborhood, thieves are still at work.

The police officer who came to our home was certain of three things: the burglary was random, the burglary was committed by someone local, and the burglar was probably on foot.

While we along with other SeaTac families certainly still hurt at these losses, our family was reminded very clearly on Christmas day ... we still have what really matters most of all. Our deep abiding faith in Christ and our incredibly precious family.

You may even know the person responsible for these appalling acts against several citizens of SeaTac. If you do, PLEASE speak up! No one needs to experience the pain some of our families have experienced.

If you have information that could help any of these SeaTac families get to the source of their losses, you can call the city's non-emergency line at 206.296.3311 or 206.973.4900 and mention case 06-380219.

Thank you for your help! Let's continue to keep SeaTac the city that it should be.

Burglarized but still blessed

SeaTac family

Editor's note: The writer's name is on file at the Times/News. Because of the nature of the crime, his name is not being published.