Document text
Family's memories were among stolen items By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune ASHLAND - There was the Zeve family's new Dell computer, and a 100-CD disc player loaded with everything from Santana to Lyle Lovett to a disc of Tibetan chants that could suck the life out of the wildest of parties. Burglars made off with these and many other Zeve family treasures when they broke into the Zeves' southwest Ashland home Wednesday night. But the intruders also stole something far more valuable that night - the two daughters' childhoods. Thieves unwittingly stole almost 100 hours of videocassette tapes that the Zeves shot of Amelia and her 10-month-old sister, Gretta, and the family desperately is seeking the tapes' return. "The videos were of their births, first steps, birthdays, eating foods for the first time, everything," Lincoln Zeve said Monday. "It was, basically, the childhood of the girls to date. "They are only valuable to us," he said, "but they are invaluable to us." The tapes were stored in a small fire safe, which the thieves mistakenly believed was loaded with financially valuable items when they stole the entire safe. The family now is offering a $500 reward for the return of the safe, or just the videos, and are asking Ashland residents to keep an eye out for the small camcorder-sized tapes when looking in dumpsters and filling their garbage cans this week. "I wouldn't ask any questions," Lincoln Zeve said. "We've got to have those tapes back." But the family and police know the odds are against them. "I don't want to say slim and none, because it does happen," said Ashland police Sgt. Jim Alderman. "I hope he gets them back." The family's Ashland Creek Drive home was burglarized Wednesday while the Zeves were on a family vacation to Florida. The jewelry, electronics, various other items and the safe likely were placed in the family's 1998 Toyota 4runner, which was also stolen and found abandoned off Park Street about a mile away. If the burglars were professional thieves, they likely took the safe expecting it to contain items of financial value, Alderman said. "And they might not even have gotten it open yet - depending upon how good they are," he said. The break-in is still under investigation, and finding the tapes likely hinges on a little luck coming to police or the victims. Police could find the tapes amid a cache of stolen merchandise found in the next burglary arrest they make, or the tapes could be discarded and found, Alderman said. The Zeves also hope someone calls their home at 488-5436, even anonymously, to return the tapes - no questions asked. "But him saying no questions asked, he might get them back," Alderman said. Ironically, the tapes likely would had been undisturbed if they were simply shelved or tossed in a cardboard box beneath their bed. "Unfortunately, being in the safe, they were deemed valuable," Zeve said. "But the memories on the tapes are gone, and they're our memories." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.