PENNSYLVANIA COMPUTER STOLEN GoErie.com: While having baby, family robbed


While having baby, family robbed

'All the joy of having this baby, and then to have someone do that, to steal your stuff on Christmas.'

Paul Campbell walked in to an Erie home filled with empty desktops, hollow shelves and an open window this Christmas.

Five years ago, he rushed out of his Warren home as flames and smoke forced his family into the cold during a Christmas celebration.

He's now wondering if there is some sort of Christmas curse he is destined to endure.


"Christmas just ain't my time of year," he said.

Two days ago, thoughts of Campbell's day-old son subsided, if only for a minute, as Campbell panicked and frantically searched the rooms of his burglarized home in the 1700 block of Cascade Street.

"I was just in shock," he said.

Campbell, 31, had just returned from Warren, where he had stood at the bedside of his fiancee, Joleen Cope, 23, who gave birth to their nearly 10-pound son, Parker Miles Campbell, on Christmas Eve.

By 7 p.m. Christmas night, Campbell was meeting with an Erie police officer, reciting a list of missing items and pointing out newly bare areas in his house.


As far as he knows, Campbell said, the burglar's loot included two televisions -- including a pink 13-inch Disney Princess set -- a Sony stereo system, a DVD player, two computers, a PlayStation 2 and all of its games.

"The furniture is still there, and whoever it was actually used the restroom," Campbell said Wednesday, while taking a break from his job as an automotive technician at New Motors, 8670 Peach St.

"I worked so hard for everything. I got a good job, but the money ain't enough to pay all the bills and buy that kind of stuff."

But it was a familiar feeling, Campbell said. Starting from scratch isn't an entirely new concept for him.

On Christmas Day in 2002, a fire ignited in the living room of his Warren residence, forcing him, his then-wife and his two children -- Alexis, 9, and Tevon, 7 -- to escape the rental property during a Christmas party. A family cat died in the fire.


On top of it all, Wednesday was Campbell's birthday.

"It's just not a real good time," he said. "I've lost everything before, so here we go again."

'You feel violated'
On Monday, Cope, Campbell's fiancee, underwent a Caesarean section and gave birth at Warren General Hospital. Campbell, along with the couple's 18-month-old daughter, Elizabeth, stayed at the hospital and celebrated the birth.

From her hospital bed, Cope said she refuses to take her children back to the rented Cascade Street house, and that the family is already looking to move to a different Erie neighborhood.


"You feel violated," she said. "They were in your house, going through your stuff. It's pretty sad you have to go steal a little girl's Princess TV, and what hurt me the most is that they stole my computer with all the baby pictures of my 18-month-old."

Erie Police Lt. Dan Spizarny said the burglary occurred between Saturday and Tuesday. The home's rear door was locked, and officers are still attempting to determine the means of entry. Campbell said he thinks the person came through a window that was open when he arrived home. Spizarny said police are investigating.

At the time of the report, Campbell said police told him the burglar could be someone he knows.

Celebrating a birth
Cope's aunt, Karlene Smith, 47, of Warren, said she hopes someone will notice that another person has ended up with items they should not have.

"They took anything of value, which really wasn't much," she said. "I mean, what a way to have Christmas. All the joy of having this baby, and then to have someone do that, to steal your stuff on Christmas. "

Campbell said he was relieved he returned to Erie alone Tuesday, without Cope and their children.

"Joleen wasn't actually up here to see how bad it was," Campbell said. "I'm glad it was just me that came home. So much stuff has happened to me, it wouldn't hit me so hard as others."

Smith said her niece is devastated.


"She also has those baby hormones going on. She was just crying like crazy," Smith said. "I told her, 'All that stuff is replaceable. You gotta think that you have Parker Miles, who is irreplaceable.' Sometimes you have to put it in perspective."

Despite the surrounding crisis, Campbell still appreciates his early Christmas present.

"It's always awesome having a kid born," he said, "and it's a new life, a chance to try to raise another human being to be a decent one."

HALLE STOCKTON can be reached at 870-1688 or by e-mail.