Local family robbed, young boy wants television back
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ST. IGNATIUS — All 11-year-old Bronco Branson wants for Christmas is his television back.
And that is what he hopes will happen if he shares his story: perhaps whoever broke into his home on Dec. 17 will return it.
Bronco and his family were the victims of one of several home burglaries that Mission residents have said are growing worse and more frequent.
During the Dec. 1 city council meeting, resident Arleta Long voiced problems with shoplifting, but said she was also concerned with the town’s rash of residential break-ins.
“I’m sorry; I’m a nosy old lady, but this is my community,” Long said.
It is hard to say how many burglaries have taken place over the past three months because according to Deputy County Attorney James Lapotka, he does not have any paperwork that reports the 20 or more incidents of burglary that have occurred in the community. During the meeting, Lapotka voiced concern over a communication breakdown between the different responding agencies in the area as one of the problems.
“I don’t have anything about these 20 break-ins on my desk,” Lapotka said at the meeting. “And I don’t know what to do about it.”
Mayor Charles Gariepy, who also oversees the police department, could not confirm the number of burglaries or break-ins because they are still ongoing investigations.
On Dec. 9, the St. Ignatius Police Department went from two officers down to one after the resignation of Police Chief John Parker, who spent less than a year on the job.
Long said she was especially troubled because she had heard stories of people’s homes being broken into even while people were home.
Luckily, Bronco, his brother and father were not home when their house on St. Mary’s Lake Road was burglarized.
They were at grandmother Dottie Cates’ house wrapping Christmas presents and returned home to find it ransacked.
“Good thing they left the Christmas presents at my home,” Cates said, mentioning those probably would have been stolen as well.
The family isn’t sure what all was exactly stolen, but Bronco missed one item immediately; his brand new 32-inch flatscreen Vizio television he received for his birthday in October from his parents.
“His dad felt so bad and (Bronco) was very sad,” Cates said. “There is a lot of stealing going on around (St. Mary’s Lake Road).”
Even though the burglar or burglars didn’t get a chance to steal the family’s presents, Cates knew exactly how to describe their actions.
“He’s the Grinch,” Cates simply stated.
