YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Robert Joshua of Youngstown left his Ottawa Avenue home on the afternoon of December 15th only to discover that once he returned, someone else had been there.

"I came home with groceries in hand. Opened the front door like I always do, passed by my office and I noticed my laptop wasn't there and I thought that was strange," Joshua said. "I remembered where I kept the most precious and valuable things to me, which was in my bedroom, in a closet, in a safe on the floor under shoes. I walked down the hallway, turned into the bedroom, opened the closet door, which was closed, and I looked down and there was an imprint in the carpet."

The safe was gone and so were the family's most precious belongings and memories.

"The safe was really the receptacle, as the family historian, for the audio cassettes of grandma singing in church, the VHS cassettes of family events, reunions, my other grandmother who has since passed away," Joshua said.

After Robert looked over the house, he discovered not much else had been disturbed. There was no broken glass or smashed doors, only a few footprints left in the snow.

"The alarm was not on. I had some technical trouble with the alarm sensors because the dogs would bark and set it off. So I didn't set the alarm that day, but someone knew the right time to come in, that everyone else was out of town and struck at the opportune moment," Joshua said.

While Robert waits on the Youngstown Police Department to finish its investigation, he is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the return of the items or an arrest.