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(WJBK) - We have all done it, you have to get out of your car for just a few minutes, you leave your purse even a cell phone inside. Well, that backfired for one woman who is now out thousands of dollars.
“They aren't just taking things from people, they are taking memories,” Ellen Premejaj said.
Photographer Ellen Premetaj says before you judge what happened to her, listen to her warning.
“There is a security camera that nobody would be stupid enough to break into a vehicle like they did,” she said.
She was on a senior pictures shoot in Detroit Saturday morning. They parked at a lot near the Dequindre Cut path not too far from Eastern Market.
“I figured we would be back in a just a matter of minutes 15 or 20 because I only needed a couple shots from this area,” Premetaj said.
She covered her purse with a coat and locked the doors.
But minutes later when they got back to the car, the window was smashed out, her designer purse and payment for the photoshoot was gone.
Most importantly though,
“I had strands of my father's hair from when he passed away two years ago and that was in my purse that I keep at all times, so that's upsetting,” she said.
Something she knows she will never get back.
“All of my personal information is gone, it’s in somebody else’s hands, I don’t know what they’re going to do with it,” Premetaj said.
Another car that was with their group was broken into too, they stole shoes but left behind a purse in that car.
When Ellen made the police report,
“The officer that took the report he indicated his commander was aware of the situation and that they had had reports that vehicles had broken into last night at that same location,” she said.
She's sharing her story so we all take that extra second, no matter where we are parked.
“I can guarantee I won't leave anything in my vehicle again,” she said.