A Southampton couple yesterday said they were outraged to discover an intruder stole documents, jewellery and electronics from their home and then set fire to a handful of unwanted items including both their passports.Claire and Tim Simons have lived near Pompano Beach in Southampton for 22 years.They said their community is getting “fed up” with the rising crime which has included an armed robbery of a guest house in recent months.Mr Simons said: “People are fed up with it. It’s a quiet neighbourhood, just a half dozen or so houses. I’m seeing police coming down this way to check more often. We never used to. Times in Bermuda have changed.”A visibly emotional Mrs Simons described how her son Jermaine narrowly missed an encounter with the stranger in their home.“We were a little late coming back on Wednesday night. I called my son, who lives next door, and asked him to put our supper on the stove. After he went back to his apartment he heard our screen door open. I believe the burglar was in the house when my son came in, and my son then heard him leave.”The couple returned home to find their bedroom ransacked, drawers dumped out, jewellery taken, and a new PlayStation 3 missing. The house had been locked but the burglar jimmied a window latch open.Mr Simons said: “He took the PlayStation, the games, DVDs, and the HDMI cable for our TV.“Our house backs onto trees that go all the way over to Spring Benny and Woodlawns Road and we think that’s the way he went. I called the police and made a statement and we drove around that night but we didn’t see anything.”On Thursday morning, however, the couple happened to speak to a man walking along the road outside their house. “He said he’d just come up the track and saw a burning pile with jewellery on it.”The couple rushed to the path, which leads toward Tudor Hill, and found the smouldering remains of a passport and mobile phone, along with destroyed jewellery and wiring. More expensive items had been kept, including the PlayStation.Mr Simons said: “I think the burglar must have burned the stuff he didn’t want to get rid of fingerprints, but it’s bizarre. The way it was just left there burning, the fire could have spread.”The couple hired a metal detector in an effort to recover personal belongings of sentimental value.Mrs Simons said: “I don’t want to come home on my own now. It really unnerves me. It makes you uncomfortable to know that your own home has been violated. “There were things that meant a lot, and things we’re in no financial position to replace that game was a big splurge for us.”Neighbours want to organise their own watch group, she said. “It’s got to the point where people are really aware of strangers.”The Simons residence has been broken into before: five years ago some cash was taken. But the theft of passports and travel documents is “a huge inconvenience for both of us”, Mr Simons said.A stolen travel wallet contained the couple’s marriage certificate plus a spousal letter required for travel. Mrs Simons said: “In one way, I feel glad they’ve been burned and they are not being passed around.”The burglary is under investigation by police, with forensics expected to search for fingerprints this weekend. Mr Simons added: “You have always got people getting broken into, but now it keeps on happening. You keep on hearing about it, it happens to people you know. It’s just so frequent now.”