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  • Rebecca Howard, 21, used a camera and camcorder to record special moments with her children, Braydon and Emmalen, while their father Army Spc. Donald Howard is deployed, but her equipment was recently stolen out of her pickup. She is asking the burglars to return the memory cards. Anita Pere

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  • Army Spc. Donald Howard was deployed when his daughter, Emmalen, was born. He came home for two weeks before returning to Afghanistan. Photos and videos of Emmalen and Braydon, also pictured, are on cameras that were stolen. Provided

    Howard1_submitted.jpg
February 7, 2012

Stillwater mom to burglar: Give back memories

Thieves took cameras with baby video and photos being saved for a deployed soldier

By Anita Pere apere@stwnewspress.com

STILLWATER, Okla. — A Stillwater mom is making a plea to the burglar who took cameras and other belongings out of her pickup overnight Monday.

What Rebecca Howard really wants back are the cameras’ memory cards. They hold precious images of her 7-month-old daughter Emmalen Howard and 2-year-old son Braydon Howard.

Rebecca Howard, 21, had been documenting their growth for her husband, Army Spc. Donald Howard of the 179th Infantry Regiment, part of the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Donald, 21, has been deployed to Afghanistan since March, Rebecca said. Weeks after Emmalen’s birth, Donald was allowed two weeks of leave. That’s the only time he’s seen his daughter.

Donald was going to learn about the kids’ milestones through the moments Rebecca captured on her video camera and her digital camera.

But now, months of giggles, first tastes of food and messages recorded for Dad are gone. Rebecca even taped Emmalen’s kicks during the homestretch of her pregnancy.

“I just want (the memory cards) back,” Rebecca said. “They have so much, so many memories that he’s missed out on that he’s not going to get to see now ...

“We would record messages where (Braydon) would tell Daddy he loves him and wants him to come home.”

Rebecca’s mother, Shelia Knight, said Rebecca recorded “everything. (Emmalen’s) first food, her laughing, giggling, pulling up on her knees. She’s almost starting to crawl.”

Donald has never seen the photos and videos. Rebecca said he’s in an isolated part of Afghanistan, and he just got Internet service a few weeks ago.

Rebecca said she locks her black Ford F150, but Tuesday morning she realized she didn’t lock up the night before. Burglars took the blue Kodak Playsport video camera and her silver Canon Powershot camera, plus sunglasses, a purse and a checkbook and a PikePass, Shelia said.

The pickup was parked in the driveway of Rebecca’s duplex at 1720 W. 22nd Ave.

Shelia and Rebecca think maybe the burglar was interrupted. A pair of sunglasses was left in the pickup, and the backseat was untouched, Rebecca said.

“They went through my mail. I don’t know what they were looking for, if anything specific, but they definitely didn’t take everything they could have,” she said.

Shelia said all she wanted back was the memory cards.

“They took a lot of other stuff, but I don’t even care. That doesn’t matter. We just want the memory cards out of the cameras,” she said.

Rebecca is asking whoever has the memory cards to leave them somewhere she can find them.

“They can put it in my mailbox, they can just leave it anywhere, put a sticky note on my truck saying that, ‘I put them in this place.’ I would just like them back,” she said.

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