Three young teachers awoke early yesterday morning to find that burglars had broken into their home and made off with several items, including cash.

The home at 57 Eastern Highway, Lamaha Gardens was reportedly broken into some time between 1 am and 5 am and though the women were unharmed they were traumatised by the incident. An unknown number of persons broke into the upper flat of the home where the women were and stole the items while they were asleep. Naicelis Rozema, one of the women, recounted that a tenant drew their attention to the break-in around 5 am, after realising that the front door was wide open.

She investigated and found that two lap top computers were missing as well as a brush cutter, a cellular phone, a jar containing $15,000 in cash, a bag and a flash drive. Rozema said she was deeply saddened by the loss since her computer, which was stolen, stored many academic materials, among other priceless works.

She said too that the flash drive, which belonged to a respected local educator, stored a series of articles, which are usually published in one of the daily newspapers.

Rozema said the burglars might have gained easy access because the front gate was left opened; an oversight which she said was a “rare lapse.”

She said also that they forgot to bolt the door properly and had only left one latch on.

However, she said that whoever entered the building had to break open the lock and release a few screws in addition to slightly chipping away at the door before gaining access.

One of the women was up late working and had retired at 1 am; they all slept through the break-in. Rozema said they were grateful that the bandits only focused on the material stuff that was visible in the home.

She reported that someone in the area later saw some of the academic materials, mostly paperwork for one of the teachers at the entrance leading into Sophia and alerted them.

The women’s home is a short distance from the Sophia entrance. A check at the entrance unearthed the empty jar, in which the money had been and an ID card, but the majority of papers had disappeared. The police are investigating.