By Sheila McLaughlin
Enquirer staff writer

SYMMES TWP. - Margaret Fowler was certain she hadn't just misplaced the new Dooney & Bourke purse she had bought especially for her first day back to Loveland High School.

But it didn't dawn on her father, Byron, that their home had been struck by a burglar until he realized that his wallet and gold watch were missing, too.

The Fowlers' home was among five houses burglarized in the same neighborhood off Union Cemetery Road last week in pre-dawn break-ins that might be linked to similar cases in Sycamore Township and Loveland.

Thievery in Cincinnati's northeastern suburbs doesn't stop there. In other cases, detectives in Symmes Township, Loveland and Clermont County's Miami Township think they see a pattern in a rash of auto break-ins, where thieves have taken everything from money and laptops to a used hairbrush and a pair of pants.

"A lot of this is just people driving though the neighborhood and seeing an opportunity to take from someone else," said Miami Township Detective Nick Colliver.

Hamilton County sheriff's officials say seven burglaries - five on Antietam Drive, Shenandoah Trace and Appomattox Court in Symmes on Aug. 24 and two on Lake Thames Drive in Sycamore on Aug 26 - were so similar they might have been committed by the same person.

The thief or thieves entered the homes through unlocked doors while residents were asleep, took purses, wallets and jewelry that had been left in plain view, then slipped away.

The same happened at three homes in the Claiborne subdivision in Loveland in the past two weeks, but the take was different. The burglar went for alcohol instead of money, Detective Hugh Bomske said.

The sheriff's office and Loveland are trying to determine whether there's any link between their cases.

Monday, sheriff's officials announced they were seeking an unidentified suspect whose image was captured on a bank security camera.

Police say he withdrew money from an automated teller machine at People's Community Bank in Mason on Aug. 26 using a credit card stolen from a home on Lake Thames Drive.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Barnett issued a warning for homeowners: Lock your doors and windows, and don't leave valuables and purses lying around on the kitchen counter or table.

"You have to balance convenience with theft. If it's convenient for you, it's probably convenient for someone else to take."

Anne Fowler, who was dropping her son off at college at Texas A&M when the burglary occurred at her home, said the thief entered through an atrium door that her husband had forgotten to lock.

She said her daughter is so unnerved that the house was burglarized while she and her father slept, that she now locks her bedroom door when she turns in for the night.

"You think of your home as your secure place, and she's lost that kind of innocence," Anne Fowler said.

As for the auto break-ins, Bomske said they could be part of a teen contest. More than a dozen cars were broken into - most unlocked and parked in driveways - on Woodcrest Drive in Loveland Aug. 18 and in the Miami Trails subdivision in Miami Township Aug. 25 and part of Symmes Township.

"I personally think it's kids. I've heard there's a group of kids running around and they get so many points for taking things," said Bomske.

That might explain some of the odd items that were taken, said Miami Township's Colliver.

"Even a crackhead's not going to take somebody's used hairbrush," he said.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com