BEAVERTON -- When Detective Chris Kitto first scanned the report of a Dec. 23 burglary at a low-income housing complex, he saw nothing unique. No detail suggested that he would become more emotionally attached to this case than any other.

The problem with police reports is that they don't show the eyes of the victims. The words on the page reveal the facts, not the faces.

With only basic information, Kitto went to an apartment on Southwest Allen Avenue to investigate the burglary. What the report didn't tell him was that the 6-year-old boy who opened the door would offer a firm handshake, look him directly in the eye and say, "Hello, Sir."

"This doesn't happen when you go to a lot of the low-income houses," Kitto said, recalling the case. "It's just not like that."

He learned that the family had little money. The father, Alejandro Correa Reyes, works as a welder to provide for his wife and two children, one a 2-month-old girl. The 6-year-old is also named Alejandro.

A PlayStation 2, for which the parents had saved and intended to give to young Alejandro as a Christmas gift, was among the items stolen. Two days before they could give him the $100 gaming console, it disappeared, just like the unknown burglar who entered their home by shattering a window with a chunk of concrete.

"When I was reading the report I was like, if my house got broken into and my kid's stuff got stolen, I'd just go buy him some more," said Kitto, 36. "But that wasn't an option."

Many burglaries of this sort go unsolved. But in this case, the Beaverton police caught a break. The responding officer had lifted a fingerprint that matched those of Uriel Mendez Ramirez, 30, a convicted thief.

On Feb. 18, police arrested Ramirez, and on Monday he pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and theft. He received three years probation and an order to pay restitution.

While questioning Ramirez last month, Kitto found himself concerned primarily with returning the PlayStation to Alejandro.

"The only thing I wanted was, 'OK, where's the PlayStation 2,'" Kitto said. "And he told me he sold it to somebody for 25 bucks a few days earlier."

Before returning to the Beaverton Police Department late last year, Kitto, who has two sons, spent six years assigned to the FBI as a computer forensics expert. It was a job that forced him into gritty cases involving children, many of which were sex-exploitation cases.

"I'm just kind of tired of seeing bad things happen to kids," he said.

Kitto and his partner on the case, Detective Mark Kirlin, went to Canyon Exchange, a Beaverton pawnshop to buy a replacement PlayStation 2. But owners Mike and Jane Vaden refused to let the officers pay, telling Kitto to give it to the family.

Kirlin scavenged his home for PlayStation 2 games that his kids didn't play anymore.

On Feb. 22, four days after Ramirez was arrested and nearly two months after the burglary, the detectives delivered the replacement console to the family. Alejandro, the father, began to cry. Alejandro, the son, reacted much as a 6-year-old should after receiving a long-awaited present that he thought would never arrive.

"He lit up," Kitto said. "He immediately gave us hugs. He was a happy camper."

Kitto paused, not sure what to say once he had reached the story's happy ending. He added, finally, "It needed to be done."

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