Woman says burglars moved into her home, took heirloom keepsakes

ANTELOPE, CA (KTRK) -- A California woman is trying to reclaim her home after she says she was on vacation and someone moved in and burglarized her things.

Elaine Hersch says even after cleaning for days, she's still uncomfortable inside her own home.

Hersch told station KTXL, "The bathrooms were filthy, just filthy. They'd been here awhile. The kitchen counter you couldn't see anything... the floor was just filth."

While she was on vacation in her home town in Michigan, her pool man called her. Hersch said, "He said, 'Elaine you know something is not right here, your slider's open your air conditioner is iced over'."

The house was ransacked, with TVs, surveillance cameras, and an alarm system ripped out. Hersch says it's obvious they were living in her home."

She said, "They were cooking in my kitchen, the food was all over the place, the bed, they had slept in my bed."

However, it's the sentimental things she lost that she misses most. She said, "My dad's lighter from World War II, I lost him when I was 11, I had that, his name's engraved on it."

Hersch's car was also stolen out of her garage, but before she even got back home, Sacramento Sheriff deputies arrested Lloyd Pitt, who had Hersch's keys in his bag.

Pitt says he's innocent, telling KTXL, "I don't have no TVs of hers, I have no lighter of hers, I have nothing of this lady's."

Pitts says he's homeless and does admit being arrested June 10. He also said he's showered in homes that are abandoned "once or twice."

Hersch says she may never feel at home in her house again. She said, "They took my life away. They took my life away."