Writer's unfinished novel among items stolen in burglary

After a week of sleepless nights wondering how he'll ever recover, freelance writer Phil Elliott finds himself no closer to a resolution.

Burglars invaded his Long Street townhouse Jan. 19 and made off with countless items. All of them were worth a bit of money, but his most valued possession - a novel he was writing that was half finished - was spirited away in the memory banks of his stolen laptop computer.

"When you lose your brains, it's gone," Elliott, 53, said Wednesday, standing in the garage through which the bandit gained entry.

He has a difficult time staying in the home now. He's had a more difficult time believing police will have no luck locating his things or even finding a culprit.

Investigators said there would be no viable fingerprints on the items touched by the uninvited hands of the thieves. Neighbors said nothing unusual was seen or heard in the hours Elliott was at work that day. With nothing to go on, Elliott said his case was closed Wednesday.

Even if the garage door wasn't left open by the culprit, he would have had no trouble figuring out he'd been hit. The place was ransacked. Drawers were emptied, others were rummaged through. Each room had been visited, including upstairs in his office and bedroom.

Among the items missing: a digital camera he used for his full-time job in advertising, an old cell phone, stereo headphones, his checkbook, house keys.

Elliott admits with a sigh he had none of his novel on backup disks. The one and only copy of his countless hours of writing was in the Apple iBook laptop along with freelance jobs that are due by now.

"I'd really like to get the laptop back," he said. "Maybe somebody will see this and say, 'I found some of your stuff.'"

He plans on fortifying his home of three months with new locks and adding deadbolts. He has already installed a circuit-breaking cord to his electric garage door opener. Now when he leaves, he has two remote controls to push: one to close the door and another to cut off the circuit making it impossible to open it with an ill-gotten controller.

"The feeling of violation is well-known in these cases," he said, his voice trailing off with regret. "I'm pretty pessimistic about getting anything back. If you're really optimistic and it turns out worse than you thought, then you'll feel bad."

Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.