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Man says someone stole family heirlooms from his Beach home

Posted at 1:58 AM, Sep 05, 2012
and last updated 2012-09-05 10:48:14-04

Jeff Franklin's apartment was trashed, leaving him only a few photos and the memories of his mother.

Gone are the family heirlooms she left him.

"The guns I can replace, the Playstation 3 I can replace, but my mother's stuff is, that's really got me," Franklin said.

She died three years ago.

He kept her jewelry in a lockbox in his bathroom.

"Luckily, I gave one of the rings to my daughter. I don't know what I was going to do with them." Franklin said. "I just wasn't ready to get rid of them."

Franklin works as a longshoreman and came home early Monday morning.

As he came up the stairs to his Oceanfront apartment, he knew something was wrong before he even got through the door.

"I came in and first thing I seen is the window busted open and I looked in here and this house, you wouldn't even recognize it," Franklin said.

He spent most of the day cleaning up, putting everything that's left back to where it was.

"They threw all my stuff, that stuff was thrown all over the floor," Franklin said. "All my stuff in my closet, all those clothes were thrown all over the floor."

The guns he keeps by his bed were taken. As he cleans up he keeps discovering new things that were stolen.

"When I saw the shambles in here I knew they took everything," Franklin said. "I had watches, all my watches, luckily this is my favorite watch. I had that one on for work yesterday, but all my watches are gone."

He's lived on 19th Street since the start of the year and has always felt safe, but now he feels differently.