Thieves break into hikers' car, find house keys and registration, then burglarize home -- 3 hours away!

SEATTLE -- A six-day hike into the North Cascades turned one couple’s vacation into a nightmare.

The couple returned to the Hannagen Pass trailhead to discover someone broke into the car through the sunroof and stole the couple’s keys.

What’s worse, the car’s battery cables had been cut, allowing the crooks plenty of time to tear through their house.

“I never, ever thought that they would be this organized, actually,” said victim Adam Cox.

He’s amazed that crooks could add insult to injury, turning a mountain excursion into a disaster.

“We never thought someone would take the address and our house keys and drive almost three hours and burglarize our house,” he said.



After rifling through their car, the thieves used the information on their car registration to hit the couple’s house. They got away with clothing, electronics, camping equipment and bicycles – and the couple’s gold Nissan Pathfinder from the back yard.

“They actually had to change the battery out, cause it was just sitting out there and it hadn’t been driven in a while,” Cox said, “They’re driving around in a stolen vehicle with expired tabs.”

Neighbor Anna Anderson thinks she saw the crooks driving off through the alley in a black Ford pickup filled with Cox’s stuff.

She’s amazed the thieves may have used the car’s registration to track down her neighbor’s house.

“You’re supposed to have it in your car so you’d assume it needs to be there but it doesn’t seem to be safe anymore with that situation,” said Anderson.

“Identity theft is my main concern right now because I may have to deal with that for a long, long time to come,” said Cox.

He added that three other hikers' cars were busted into last week, too. Deputies said crooks got away with someone’s garage door opener.

Police say you can blackout the address on your car’s registration, as long as the vehicle owner’s name remains on the document.