Authorities are searching for a Jefferson County man who they say has a history of breaking into houses and, in some cases, rummaging through women’s underwear drawers.
The suspect, Robert Kent Peterson, 44, of unincorporated Jefferson is wanted on a $50,000 arrest warrant after investigators named him as a suspect in at least two break-ins in the county.
“It doesn’t appear that he’s stolen anything, and right now don’t know what his motive is,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Shires said. “The burglaries we’ve connected him to all seem to happen in the afternoon when he thought nobody was home.”
On Feb. 3, Peterson was arrested and charged with second-degree burglary for allegedly breaking into a home in the 9600 block of West Chatfield Avenue. Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home where a female caller said she walked into her 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom and found a “strange man” attempting to hide in the closet, Shires said.
The resident confronted the man, who made an excuse about being inside her home as he fled the residence through the front door. The woman followed him outside to his vehicle and called 911.
Deputies later caught up with a vehicle matching the suspect’s description and arrested Peterson. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail, but was released after posting $10,000 bond, Shires said.
After his release on Feb. 6, investigators determined that Peterson may have committed similar crimes many times in the past. They named him as a suspect in another break-in that took place on Jan. 13, in which a 15-year-old girl came home from school with a friend to find a man hiding in an upstairs bathroom.
After the suspect gave an excuse for being in the home, he left through the front door. The girls ran out the back door to the friend’s house and called 911. Peterson later was identified by the girl during a photo lineup.
There have been no reports that Peterson actually stole anything from the homes he’s accused of breaking into or hurt anyone, Shires said. But investigators believe he may have targeted women.
Authorities, however, stopped short of saying Peterson was harmless.
“We haven’t seen any kind of violent maneuvers from him to this point, but that’s not to say that as charges start to appear in the court and we start putting more and more incidents together that he may become scared and do something he hasn’t done in the past,” Shires said.
Investigators are checking with other counties to determine whether Peterson is suspected of breaking into any homes outside of Jefferson, Shires said.
If you have information that may help investigators, please call the sheriff’s office tip-line, 303-271-5612.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com
