Thieves target Tacoma home after recent fire

TACOMA, Wash. — A family in Tacoma, dealing with tragedy after tragedy, is struck another blow. A fire on August 8th nearly destroyed their home, burning nearly everything inside. Days after, neighbors spotted people looting the few remaining possessions they had from the shed in the backyard.

Noel Mackey put up a sign afterwards, pleading for the boat and several tools to be returned.

“I hope people would feel bad and bring my stuff back.” Mackey said.

Surveillance captured a blue SUV, possible a Jeep with a lot of stickers on the back with Mackey’s boat on the roof.

The possessions that were stolen just compound the pain she feels. Mackey lost her beloved 14-year-old pug Daisy in the fire that started when she was grocery shopping.

The house had been a labor of love to create into a home. For the past two years Mackey had worked to repaint, replace walls, and replace floors to make it into something she was proud of.

“We loved our house but, I spent all of my money to make it a home, so it sucks it’s gone,” she said.

Daisy’s death is the second of a family member in nearly as many weeks. Mackey and her partner, Logan Schaffer, worked to move Logan’s dad into the house for hospice. A recent diagnosis after they had rekindled their relationship gave him six months to live. He died on July 29th, one day shy of Schafer’s 30th birthday.

“It wasn’t really six months, it was really six days,” Schafer said, “I’m happy that he got to be here and surrounded by love.”

“We’ve kind of started healing and loving on each other again because it was a really tough week. Now we’re going to have to do it all over again.

The Tacoma Fire Department says it was an unintentional electrical fire.

Logan & Noel have visited the home every day since the fire, walking around the ashes in shoes donated to them by friends.

The two have created two GoFundMe pages to help—one to help find a place to live after the house and most of their belongings—They technically rented the house from Noel’s dad, and they had been in between insurance when the fire broke out.

“We feel very lucky we have great friends to give us some clothes already, but it takes a bit of money to get into a new place and we just took time off to care for [Logan’s dad] we we’re a little behind. It’s not always like this. It’s just terrible timing.”

The second is to help Logan create three rings—his lucky number—from his father’s cremated ashes.

“Something in me told me that he may not have much time and I’m glad I listened to myself because that’s what ended up happening.” Schafer said.

Noel GoFundMe

Logan GoFundMe

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