Widow robbed on way to husband’s memorial - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Widow robbed on way to husband’s memorial

Tiffany Smith had just stopped for a bite to eat at the Golden Corral on her way to a memorial service for her husband, Senior Airman Bradley Smith. That’s when the unthinkable happened.

A thief smashed a window of her car and snatched her husband’s dog tags, a watch, a digital camera and two laptop computers.

“It was just unreal, like how could this happen to me?” Smith said. “I don’t know what I did wrong in the world to deserve all of this.”

Smith’s husband, a tactical air control airman assigned to the 10th Air Support Operations Squadron out of Fort Riley, Kan., was killed by a bomb blast in Afghanistan on Jan. 3. He was 24. Their daughter, Chloe, is 4 months old.

Tuesday’s theft seemed especially cruel to Smith because she lost family pictures stored in the laptops and the camera.

“The only reason I even care about the stuff is it has all the pictures of Brad on it,” she said. “That’s the only way Chloe is going to get to know her dad.”

Smith was in Colorado for a memorial service for her husband at Fort Carson, the base from which her husband’s unit deployed to Afghanistan.

Lt. Lari Sevene, a spokeswoman for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, said special attention is being paid to the case because of the circumstances.

“This specific tragedy, the fact she was already dealing with the loss of her husband ... it just adds insult to injury,” Sevene said. “It’s certainly something we’re putting some significant effort into, to help her to have a little bit more peace in what is obviously a difficult time.”