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Stockton Widow Says Home Burglarized 14 Times, Ready To Move

STOCKTON (CBS13) — A Stockton widow says her home has been targeted by thieves 14 times.

"I want it to stop, I just want peace," said Essie King. "After being at work all day, I just want to come home and get some rest."

After nearly every window has been fingerprinted and more than a dozen burglaries, King says she's left with no other choice but to move out.

"I took all the pictures down in my home, because it's not home anymore," King said.

And she's not alone. In the past six months, Stockton Police say there have been 47 burglaries within a half-mile of her home in the last six months.

King showed CBS13 the doors that have been kicked in, the rocks used to break in and the windows that have been pried open while she's at work or at church.

She has a burglar alarm, but the crooks are in and out before police arrive.

King says they aren't going over her fence—they're going through it, by knocking down boards. The thieves have even tried to rip off the copper from her air conditioning unit.

"I have this metal plate so they couldn't take it out, because they're trying to take the entire unit," she said.

She suspects the suspects are coming through another fence behind her home at a low-income housing complex.

Barbara Kauss, executive director of the housing authority of San Joaquin County, says she's away of King's complaints, and has a police officer working on the issue. She doesn't believe her clients at the complex King is pointing to are the problem, since some of them are burglary victims, too.

"We can have our community policing officers work with Mrs. King, and I believe they have, as well as our other neighbors," Kauss said.

But King says she's heard enough and she's leaving.

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