It may be a normal routine for parents with small children, dropping their children off at daycare before they head to work in the morning. A warning for those parents as one dad says he had stuff stolen from his car in the parking lot of his son's daycare.
Ryan Quance says he never thought something like this would happen in this West Omaha neighborhood, but now that it has he's making sure those in his community don't have the same thing happen to them.
His son has attended Rosewood Academy near 156th and Fort for almost two years and he said that he's never felt anything but safe dropping his kid off at daycare. Last Thursday that whole mindset changed when his wife dropped his child off at 8:30 in the morning. "At that time, she went inside like she normally does but she just didn't grab all of her belongings and didn't think two things of it, went inside for two or three minutes, came back out and she noticed her vehicle was broken into,” said Quance.
Stolen out of their vehicle were a laptop and his wife's purse. He says he was shocked to see this happening in broad daylight. "I never thought this would happen this far west but there's crooks everywhere so you just gotta protect your surroundings,” said Quance.
Officer Michael Pecha, public information officer for the Omaha Police Department says that something like this can happen at any time of day, so people need to always be aware of their surroundings. "These crimes tend to be crimes of opportunity,” said Pecha
Quance says an hour after the incident the laptop and his wife's purse were found just a few blocks away from the daycare at a church. “We get a phone call from Flatland Church; the pastor went outside to throw a box away and he found the belongings,” said Quance. The laptop and purse were in the dumpster, but 100 dollars in cash, a credit card, and his wife's ID were missing.
However, Quance says now his biggest concern is that Rosewood Academy hasn't done anything to notify other parents. “We never thought that we would have something like this happen, but when it did we thought that they would take the extra measures to let everybody know instead they just kind of kept it hush hush,” said Quance. So, he has taken matters into his own hands and now notifies surrounding communities and all other parents, so they don't fall victim.
"We all just need to protect each other, I might be a bug guy by day but I’m a father by night and it's my job to protect my family and my community that I service in every day."
Officer Pecha says that he has no specifics on why a daycare would be targeted but says that where there are more cars there are more opportunities for criminals. So, he suggests never leaving anything valuable in a car or in view from a window because criminals only need a second to see the items and break in.
Rosewood Academy declined the request for a comment.
