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Woman mourns theft of ring that soldier gave her before his death

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 8, 2008

By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com

It helps Melissa Haddad cope with the death of her fiancé to share their pictures together, their e-mails and her most intimate thoughts via her "Pete and Missy" Web site.

She cherishes everything 2nd Lt. Peter Burks left behind before he was killed in November by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

But over the July Fourth weekend, someone broke into Ms. Haddad's Uptown Dallas apartment and stole some of her most treasured keepsakes, including the ring he slipped on her finger while down on one knee at the Dallas Arboretum in April 2007.

"I feel bad for them because they obviously spent a good deal of time in our apartment and could figure out what was going on, who they were taking stuff from," said Ms. Haddad, who was profiled in a Dallas Morning News article earlier this year.

"So it just goes to show what kind of people really exist in the world."

It is unclear exactly when during the holiday weekend the burglary occurred, because Ms. Haddad and her roommate were both out of town for several days. She learned of the crime when she returned to Dallas on Sunday night.

The burglary is one of several similar crimes reported in the Uptown area in recent months, including six others this year at the same apartment building where Ms. Haddad lives, in the 2800 block of McKinney Avenue, according to Dallas police reports.

In Ms. Haddad's case, as in others, it appears the burglar or burglars were in no rush.

They shuffled through drawers and closets in Ms. Haddad's apartment, taking some shoes or articles of clothing and leaving others behind. They took valuable electronics, including the computers she used to maintain her popular Web site (though she said she had previously backed up most of her Pete-related files). They broke open a safe to get to the ring.

Apparently, they also worked up an appetite.

"They had to have been in my apartment for a good several hours," Ms. Haddad said. "They drank ginger ale, were eating Haagen-Dazs bars, ate Progresso soup."

Dallas police say area residents should be alert for anything that looks suspicious.

"A burglar is going to have things that stand out," said Dallas police Sgt. Lance Hunter, a supervisor in the patrol division that includes Uptown. "They're going to have to have a way to get the property out, they're going to have to make a little bit of noise.

"Someone is seeing something. ... [Maybe] they think it may be just a little bit odd and they haven't told us."

As she cleaned up her apartment Monday evening, Ms. Haddad said she just wants what Pete gave her.

"I don't care about anything else. I want the ring," she said. "Someone took it away from me. I didn't lose it."

Anyone with information about this or other burglaries in the Uptown area can call Dallas police at 214-670-4414.