‘Path of least resistance’: Thieves use bizarre tactic in Milpitas home break-in

A man posing as an Amazon delivery driver helped thieves break into a Milpitas home, the home’s resident said.

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Donna Kato, who lives in a quiet cul-de-sac in north Milpitas, told SFGATE that the burglary happened on Sept. 16 in broad daylight while she was on vacation. Kato said she called the police after she saw the surveillance footage from her Ring camera and her neighbor’s camera.

“It was pretty overwhelming. My hands were shaking as I was calling the police and in some ways, luckily I wasn’t home because who knows, I might have been assaulted,” Kato said. “My thoughts go straight to my personal safety.” 

The footage showed a man wearing a blue Amazon vest carrying a package and knocking on her door. Kato described the knocking as “aggressive” and said the person in the video did not ring the doorbell. After realizing no one was home, she said the man looked at his phone and walked down the street.

Footage then showed a car pulling up to the house with two people wearing masks, sunglasses and hats. The two people came in through her backyard gate, smashed the sliding glass door and disabled her modem, which took her alarm system and Ring cameras offline, she said.

Kato said she believes the thieves staged themselves around the corner from the cul-de-sac and that they were inside the house for approximately 10 minutes. She obtained footage from her neighbors across the street, which showed the thieves carrying her safe, which contained all of her jewelry, out to a car.

“But most importantly, it had my mother’s jewelry, heirloom jewelry, a couple of custom pieces, and then an Omega gold and diamond watch, my mother’s diamond and emerald necklace, which was also custom,” she said. “Those were gifts, things that my mother left me and irreplaceable.”

Jason Speckenheuer, a spokesperson for the Milpitas Police Department, confirmed the burglary to SFGATE but did not provide further details. He said burglars are often looking for the “path of least resistance” and residents can protect themselves in several ways.

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“They want to avoid being contacted or possibly identified by someone, and they will often use whatever means to conceal their identity and blend in,” he said.

Speckenheuer said it’s important to make homes “the least attractive to a suspecting burglar” by installing alarms and cameras, and if a suspicious person knocks at the door, he urges residents not to answer it. Kato, though, said her experience shows the limits of alarm and camera systems dependent on Wi-Fi.

“I think these thieves are getting more sophisticated these days,” she said. “… Being dependent on Wi-Fi, it makes you vulnerable.”

Kato said she has lived in the neighborhood for nearly four decades and she and her neighbors have never experienced burglaries.

“It’s shaken up the neighborhood. Some of them didn’t feel comfortable spending the first night in their home,” she said. “It’s the first time anything like this has happened.”

Though the recent tactic is new to Kato’s neighborhood, similar break-ins have happened around the Bay Area and California over the past several years tied to other crimes. In 2024, a person reportedly posed as a fake Amazon driver in order to enter someone’s home and assault them. And in 2023, thieves entered a San Jose home by knocking on the door and distracting a resident.