NEBRASKA CITY – Michael Ragland raised his family and started a painting company in Nebraska City and says he rarely had reason to worry about crime in the hometown that he loves.

Ragland: “Since I turned my life around so many years ago, I’ve been nothing but blessed. I mean true blessings abound and whenever something bad has happened to me the community has rallied right around me immediately.”

 

This Fourth of July a neighbor’s firework accidentally caught his garage full of painting equipment on fire and Ragland later began to notice loose change and tools missing from his business vehicles.

This winter, someone got beneath one of his vans and cut out the catalytic converter, presumably for the precious metals used in its construction. The worse was to come.

Ragland: “It came one night, I was laying in bed and heard a noise and went out. Lo and behold there was somebody in my living room at my desk, rooting through it. I scream at him and that’s when he pulled a gun on me in my own home.”

He was ordered to the floor and told to count to 100. When got to 30 he was ordered to start over.

Ragland: “I felt the cold air and I thought maybe he had left and that was that. I called the cops and they came around and took a statement.”

Ragland said he encountered the same man about 90 minutes later, who once again collected items and appeared to leave.

 Ragland: “The stuff he took was weird. Other than the money, he tried to take my  hooded sweatshirts  and when he left the first time he left them out on my front porch.”

He said he called police immediately a third time he was awakened. The hooded shirts that he had brought in from the porch were now gone, as were insurance papers and canceled checks from his desk.

 

 

Ragland: “Just weird stuff and this time he got my empty wallet, because he saw me empty my wallet out,  so I have no idea what the mindset for this guy was.”

Rather than gaining entry to the house three times, Ragland wonders if he perhaps had been hiding and never left. A search of the neighborhood by police had not turned up anything and Police Chief Dave Lacy said officers are considering if it was a case of home invasion.

Ragland said the key that had been in the desk is missing, but says he doesn’t know how the intruder would have known it was the house key.

His neighbors are also reporting thefts from cars, prompting a Nebraska City Crime Stoppers post and reward.

Ragland said the video of the man breaking into the vehicle matched the description of the man he gave to the police.

Ragland: “They couldn’t find him, but they did end up finding my hooded sweatshirts across the alley from me between two houses. Yeah, I got hit. Then, two nights ago, my other house that I use for storage, it went up in flames and there hasn’t been anybody in there for years. A  big hit, another big hit.”

Ragland suspects a squatter was using the home to get out of the cold or it was being used as a drug hideout.

Ragland: “With the rash of all this mindless criminal activity going on between loose change and gun point, if I had to guess, I want to say it’s people that are desperate either wanting to steal to make a living or making drugs or – the dark side of the community – it’s a lot more real.”

Ragland says he is not complaining about the police investigation.

Ragland: “I don’t know there is anything they really can do. It’s up to us as a community to be more – not vigilante – but more vigilant about being aware of our surroundings.”

Ragland said he was touched about the generosity he received after the Fourth of July fire, but now is asking for something more from the community – a little prayer.