WWII vet robbed of goods, not memories

"I think it is someone in the neighborhood," said WWII vet Victor Spence. "They know I am a retired officer."

Spence, who attended Broughton High School before joining the military in 1942, was a Marine in WWII and served in Iwo Jima. 

Aside from Spence's military service, which earned him a Purple Heart, the 88-year-old spent time working for the Wake County Sheriff's Office and the Raleigh Police Department, a career that spanned four decades.

Spence said he handed out the first speeding ticket measured by radar in the city. He said it was a time when the force celebrated having zero traffic deaths in Raleigh. 

Spence, who was away from his home at the time of the robbery, believes whoever broke into his home did so for a specific reason. 

"They thought I had a service revolver and they were after that," he said. "Hardly a day doesn't go by where I do not see on that TV that someone has been killed in their home."

Spence, who says he was almost a part of the iconic photo of six Marines raising an American flag at Iwo Jima, said he is lucky the burglar did not get away with the real treasures, his memories.