Pott. County Sheriff's Office On The Lookout For 'Bling Bandits'

The hunt is on right now for the "Bling Bandits." They're hitting homes and loading up on jewelry and the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office wants to stop them before they pull off another heist.

So far, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff says these groups of men have burglarized a total of nine homes, seven in one day. The sheriff says after talking with other law enforcement agencies, the thieves may be responsible for a number of burglaries over the last several weeks.

Mandy Dodd came home last Friday with her 7-year-old daughter and noticed her front door was wide open. At that moment, she didn't think anything of it and closed it. 

"A little bit later, I went to go change and that's when I noticed everything out there strung out in the hallway," said Dodd. "I looked in the spare room and seen all my drawers and everything dumped out."

She rushed downstairs and called 911.

"It's just scary, the thought of someone being in your home," said Dodd.

"We know they've been in teams of two, but we don't know how many people," said Pottawatomie County Sheriff, Michael Booth. "We don't know if it's the same suspects for every burglary."

Booth refers to the thieves as the "Bling Bandits" because they steal mostly jewelry. In Dodd's case, the thieves didn't even break in. They just climbed into a garage window, went inside and took her jewelry, then climbed out the same window.

"They've got a lot of nerve," said Dodd. "I hope somebody catches them. It makes me a little bit more on edge."

The sheriff doesn't believe the men are from Pottawatomie County.