It was supposed to be family vacation.
    David Strelecki and his family had traveled down to Houston to see his son take part in a wedding as a co-best man. But David never even got the chance to raise a champagne glass to celebrate.
   Around 4:15 Saturday morning, Strelecki’s cell phone woke him up.
   It was his alarm company calling to inform him that his house had been broken into.
   “I made it back to the house at 9:30 a.m.,” Strelecki says. “The police had called me and told me not to enter the house until I called 911. When I called, the investigator arrived quickly.”
   When he entered the house, he didn’t have a clue what they had taken, Strelecki says. But after he made a sweep, he noticed the thieves had taken a couple of handguns, two watches, some jewelry, half a dozen pocketknives from his collection, and a small TV.
   “But they didn’t trash the place,” Strelecki says. “They got in through the dog door and had some time to work the place over. When they got in the hallway, that is when the motion sensor went off.”
   Before Strelecki retired, he owned a car dealership in West Texas. He says that when his family had to go away for a while, he would leave the dog in the house and have someone come by and watch it, but this time he had boarded the dog.
   “I’ve added more sensors in the house so that a fly could set it off,” Strelecki says. “I even reinforced the dog door with steel rebar so no one can get in. And I’m getting motion sensor lights.
   “The police took prints, but they only picked up me and my wife’s prints,” Strelecki says.
   They have been living at the house since December, and this is the second time he has been hit with crime. He says in May, his pickup was broken into. Strelecki heard it happening, so he grabbed his gun, minus his clothes, and opened the garage, but he was too late. There was nothing there except shattered glass.
   His neighborhood has a crime patrol, but he says he hasn’t heard from the organizer since he moved in.
   Dallas Police Lt. Payne has 35 years of experience on the force and says, in this case, the homeowner had the proper security, but it just wasn’t enough.
   “Bottom line is that you have to keep your house secured,” Payne says. “He did everything he was supposed to do and made his target harder to get into. Because most of your criminals are lazy.”
   “His alarm did what it was supposed to do,” Payne says. “There is no grief over that. It is still unfortunate that his house got broken into, but you can’t blame the alarm company.” —Gabby Martinez