LIHU‘E, Kauai — Imagine being afraid to leave your house and even more afraid to return to it after a long day’s work. Welcome to Virgie Navor-Gaitos’ world.

Not only did a broad-daylight break-in at her Kapa‘a home earlier this month leave her feeling violated, frustrated and scared, but it infuriated her to a point where she has applied for a gun permit and has vowed not to be victimized again.

“I feel like I was stripped naked. They totally invaded me,” she said, nearly reaching the point of tears as she recounted all that was stolen from her and her family. “I’m so afraid of my house.”

In addition to the two video cameras, three digital cameras, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation and Xbox game systems, purses, clothes, lots of cash and jewelry and prescription pain medicines, the thief or thieves who allegedly gained access through a louvered window took years of videotapes of her now-grown children who earlier in their lives played soccer and football and were boxers.

“It’s all in there,” she said of the sentimental videotapes that showed her children in off-island sports tournaments.

While she holds little hope of getting back some of the valuable items like the electronics, jewelry or cash, she wanted to put out a plea for the burglar to return the children’s sports videotapes that are useless to the thief but hold great sentimental value to her, she said.

The thief could just leave the tapes in her mailbox, no questions asked, she said. But don’t try a repeat performance on the break-in, she added.

“I had to go and get protection for me,” she said of the gun-permit application. “It’s time for good people to fight back.

“This is Kaua‘i. We’re supposed to trust everybody,” she said.

She said she wants neighbors in her neighborhood and across Kaua‘i “to be aware of what’s going on and to watch out for each other.”

When talking about the emotional crime, she found out others in her neighborhood had been victims of break-ins as well.

“This is scary. I am so sick. I never thought in a million (years) it would happen to me. This is like something you watch on TV.”

Where floods, hurricanes or other natural disasters are events one can recover from, a home break-in is different.

“They’re not human, I think,” she said. “It’s uncalled-for.”

She said she also hopes parents of the perpetrators would put themselves in her shoes and feel the pain, fear and grief she is experiencing.

Whenever she closes her eyes, visions of what her ransacked home looked like after the thieves left are all she can see, she said. They left cupboards, dresser drawers and entry doors wide open and even went through her dirty laundry, including her intimates, she said.

Her lingering fear is that the thieves will strike again, possibly when she is in the home she has occupied less than a year.

Navor-Gaitos also said she is considering installing alarms and surveillance equipment.

While Kaua‘i Police Department officers could not provide specific information on the investigation of this case, they did encourage anyone with information on this crime to call KPD dispatch, 241-1711, or Crime Stoppers, 241-1887.

Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit organization of citizens against crime. The organization offers cash rewards of up to $1,000 to anyone furnishing anonymous information that leads to the arrest of criminals, including those committing serious felony crimes, and fugitives.

There were eight burglaries and two attempted burglaries that KPD officers responded to between Oct. 16 and 18.