When Charleston resident Jim Thornton came home from vacation two months ago, he discovered an unpleasant surprise. Uninvited guests had been in his house.

“It looked like they had been living there,” he said.

The live-in burglars slept in his home. They ate his food, used his computer and stole cash and family heirlooms. He still is trying to sort out what’s missing.

Thornton’s circumstances aren’t unusual. Talk to many Charleston residents, and they’ll tell you burglaries, car thefts and other mischief are on the rise in the Charleston area.

The mess the invaders left in Thornton’s home just off the Cape Arago Highway can be cleaned and repaired. But Thornton’s sense of comfort can’t be so easily restored.

“We always feel secure at home because it’s home,” he said. “It changes that feeling.”

 A key source of Charleston’s discomfort is a shortage of law enforcement manpower. As an unincorporated community, Charleston has no police force of its own. Like Bunker Hill and other unincorporated areas, it relies on the Coos County Sheriff’s Office for protection.

But layoffs in 2007 forced Coos County Sheriff Andy Jackson to prioritize the types of calls his deputies respond to. Unless a deputy is available, property crimes don’t bring a quick response.

“I had 18 patrol deputies before all the cuts,” Jackson said. “We were able to cover pretty much the whole county and respond to a lot more things with that amount of people.”

Those days are gone.

Now Jackson has half as many patrol deputies, and one position is unfilled. Other deputies in the dunes and marine divisions can respond in emergencies, but Jackson said those divisions are under contract to patrol designated areas.

With fewer deputies on the road, more property crimes have occurred. Several calls listed on the Coos County Sheriff’s Office police log recently describe other incidents in the Charleston area, in which people broke in or were looking for opportunities to get into someone’s home or car.

In one case, an elderly woman came home to find a man in her house. The woman confronted the burglar, who left immediately.

The burglar pedaled away on a bike, but not before he plucked a small item from a bag belonging to the woman. The only thing she reported missing was a box of batteries.

Coos County Sgt. Pat Downing said it took 45 minutes for a deputy to respond to the woman’s call, though the response is generally faster when there is confrontation between a burglar and homeowner.

“That’s a long time for us,” he said.

Having victims and burglars in a house at the same time is uncommon, Downing said. Usually the burglars are gone before the victim comes home.

The situation seems unlikey to change soon. This month’s failure of county ballot measures indicates people aren’t willing to pay for more law enforcement. Voters turned down a levy to restore the jail to full capacity, with 74 percent of the voters saying no. Before the cuts, the jail averaged around 180 inmates. That number was reduced to a maximum of 97.

Expanded jail space would not have addressed the shortage of deputies, but a levy put forward by Jackson in the May 2007 election would have. It failed 68 percent to 32 percent.

Either levy would have added about $1 per $1,000 of assessed value to people’s property tax bills.

 District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said he and Jackson discussed forming taxing districts to provide for all law enforcement in the county. One would support the jail and be paid for by local cities. The other, supporting deputies, would be paid for by rural property owners. (City police departments handle in-town patrols.)

But persuading voters to create such districts could be an uphill battle in the current economic climate, Jackson said.

Congress’ October reauthorization of four more annual timber payments is good news for the county’s finances, but citizens shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for more deputies.

County commissioners are the deciders when it comes to spending. They say they aren’t sure whether any of the federal renewal will go to law enforcement. Those payments will decrease annually and disappear after four years.

“I don’t want people to think this is a big windfall,” Commissioner Nikki Whitty said.

Additonally, the souring economy may hit the county in two ways. Shrinking state and federal budgets could reduce the amount of money coming from those sources, and the slumping timber market could weaken or even nix the county’s spring timber sale.

“Given our financial status, I don’t know if we will be doing a lot of add-backs,” Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean said.

Whitty also said the commissioners won’t make any financial decisions before Commissioner-elect Bob Main takes office in January. Main won’t discuss where he’d like to see the money go, but during his election campaign he said he would support funding going to law enforcement.

In the meantime, Sgt. Downing suggests people in unincorporated areas should depend on their communities to ensure their property is safe.

“Neighbors are usually the best burglar alarm,” he said.

Downing said a deputy will respond if people call about a person who seems out of place in their neighborhood, but they also should enlist the help of neighbors.

People should always lock doors and secure their homes and property before leaving home. If a homeowner happens to surprise a burglar, he cautions against confronting the invader. Call police immediately.

“We would rather them lose property than get hurt,” Downing said.

None of those tips, unfortunately, would have helped Jim Thornton. He speculates the burglars must have moved into and out of his place early in the morning, since neighbors never saw them. Now, he gives second thoughts to leaving for extended periods, and he has changed plans for the holidays so he can keep an eye on his home.

Thornton’s friends have suggested putting bars on his windows. He doesn’t like the idea.

“We live here because we don’t want to live in a bunker,” he said. “I don’t want to live like that.”