When Theresa Roemer returned home after a dinner out with her husband on Aug. 1, she noticed that something was very wrong. There was shattered glass on the floor of her bedroom – someone had broken into her Houston-area house and pilfered items from her closet.
But Roemer's closet isn't like yours. It's a three-story, 3,000-square-foot space complete with a champagne bar. And the items missing included much of Roemer's high-end jewelry and three large Birkin bags worth $60,000 each. The complete haul: more than $1 million.
Roemer checked the recording from her home's security camera: The burglar entered the home through a bathroom window. Wearing a light-colored hooded jumpsuit and a baseball cap, he – or she – spent nine minutes picking through her jewelry, stuffing the items into the bags. The theft happened less than two weeks after the closet had been featured on ABC's Good Morning America.
"It's terrifying," Roemer tells PEOPLE. "Someone came into my house and violated my space. I don't feel safe anymore."
Both Roemer and police believe that there was more than one thief. Exterior surveillance cameras caught at least two shadowy figures outside while the main burglar was inside the house.
The thieves got away with some very expensive jewelry, including diamonds, watches and even a one-of-a-kind 136-carat emerald. But Roemer says that's not what's important to her.
"Obviously, I'm not happy that they're gone," she says, "but those things can be replaced. I'm most upset about the items that can never be replaced. They're gone forever."
In addition to the pricey jewelry, the thieves got away with some sentimental items, including bracelets that Roemer received from her deceased mother-in-law. "They're not even worth a lot of money," she says. "But they're worth so much more to me."
Another devastating loss: a silver locket containing a lock of hair from Roemer's son, Michael, who died in a Wyoming car crash in 2006. "My son was a wonderful, wonderful boy," says Roemer, her voice catching. "That lock of hair was all I had from him. I don't care about anything else, but I want that back. I need that back. It's what I have from my son. It's ironic; the only things that aren't worth money on the market are the things that I want back the most."