Sex offender burglar charged with touching, stealing garments from women

A convicted burglar with a history of breaking into women's homes and stealing their personal belongings has been caught doing so again. Bruce A. Sitton, 56, was charges in a string of burglaries between August 25 and October 23 where women in their late teens to early 20s were sexually touched before Sitton stole personal items.

According to the Corvallis Gazette-Times article, "Sex Offender Arrested For Burglaries,"

“He has a history of going to college towns with young women, stalking them and entering their homes,” said Lt. Tim Brewer of the Corvallis Police Department. “He would watch and touch (the victims). If they woke up, he would run out.”

Sitton was charged with the burglaries and assaults while in jail for a parole violation. Police arrested him while he was in jail, but did not disclose it until a week later due to further investigation.

More from the Corvallis Gazette-Times article:

After Sitton was arrested, detectives obtained a warrant to search his home at 1117 S.E. Queen Ave. in Albany. Police discovered women’s undergarments, a hand-woven purse and other personal items in Sitton’s home that victims of the Corvallis burglaries identified as their property, Brewer said.

Sitton was convicted in Polk County in 2000 and in Benton County in 2001 for a series of burglaries in which he attempted to sexually assault some of his victims, Brewer said. He served five years in prison for those convictions. In 1998, Sitton was convicted of burglary and rape in Josephine County, but served no prison time.

Brewer said that what occurred in the Corvallis burglaries this summer and fall matched the manner in which Sitton was known to break into homes.

“We had our eye on him for the burglaries because they matched his M.O. and we knew he had been released from prison in 2006,” Brewer said.