By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati police stand in front of Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher's Price Hill home after someone robbed it Friday. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher pulled up Friday afternoon to find his daughter crying in their front yard. The Price Hill apartment they live in had been broken into and ransacked.

She was just about to enter the apartment when she paused on the front porch to get the mail. At the same time, the burglars were leaving in a hurry.

Thank God, the chief thought.

"If she'd have walked into that ...," he said, not finishing the sentence.

Katie Streicher, 25, called 911 at 12:28 p.m. She'd come home to the apartment to get ready to go to work. She parked out front, walked up the concrete steps and stopped there for a few seconds.

That's when she noticed a car backing down her driveway, then speeding away. Whoever was in the car, she realized, must have been in her house.

Though a pharmacist, she showed the influence of growing up in a police family. She ran to her car, jumped in and drove after them. She never caught up, but was able to give a detailed description of the vehicle - a 1991 to 1993 navy blue Buick Century in good condition, with tinted windows.

The chief said he wouldn't recommend chasing burglars, but he said it's typical of his daughter.

"She's a smart girl," he said, standing out in front of the Tudor house. "She's got a lot of intuition about her."

The dispatcher repeatedly told officers the victim was the chief's daughter.

Soon, the chief - "Car 1" - came on the radio himself. He asked dispatch to "ascertain if there are any injuries there."

Someone responded immediately: "Negative. No injuries."

As he headed to the west side from downtown, Chief Streicher figured that his daughter, the older of two, had her purse snatched.

He didn't think he'd drive up and learn that drawers and closets had been opened and ransacked. His daughter told him one of his police hats was found on the stairs leading to the upstairs apartment in the two-family building.

"It certainly tells you no one's exempt, that's for sure," the chief said. "It's a violation, very much so."

Word spread quickly throughout the department that something was going on at the chief's house. The District 3 captain, Andrew Raabe, responded, followed by the two Robbery Task Force bosses, two homicide supervisors, the department spokesman, the acting assistant chief for investigations, two Personal Crimes Unit investigators, the pawn shop coordinator, patrol officers, Lt. Col. Richard Janke and evidence specialists. Some stayed to work, some just came to check on their boss.

Detectives didn't want to immediately say what was missing. It was too difficult, the chief said, because the house was so completely ransacked.

They initially thought his daughter's bridesmaid's dresses - she's getting married soon - and shoes had been taken, but they were located.

The burglars entered the house by smashing in the back door. Chief Streicher said he didn't know if the house might have been targeted because he is the police chief.

But the burglars certainly knew once they got inside, given the hat and other pictures and personal items.

"I think it'd be pretty obvious once you get in there."

There were no guns in the house. The chief moved them a few weeks ago after finding prowlers in the back of the house. Ms. Streicher and her dad walked around inside, trying to help investigators determine what was missing. A crime-scene technician made molds of tire tracks left along the driveway.

Then the chief did something most burglary victims don't - he walked outside to talk to reporters about what had just happened to his daughter and to the inside of his house.

He and spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd discussed whether they should try to keep the incident quiet. They decided against it - the more information people have, Lt. Byrd said, the more likely the burglars will be caught.

The chief was angry, but composed.

"It was a grave mistake, a very grave mistake for them to do this," he said. "They scared my child. And that probably wasn't the best thing to do, I can tell you that right now."

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com