(CBS) — A warning for families dealing with the death of loved ones.

A Northwest Indiana woman says think twice before posting the loss in the paper. She believes that very act led to crooks breaking into her Lowell home while she attended her husband’s funeral.

Deputies say their CSI unit was sent to the widow’s home in an effort to catch the criminals behind this appalling crime.

The pain is still fresh for Lydia Alvarez-Traicoff. Her husband of three years suddenly died a week ago.

“Every morning I wrote him a note, and he would carry it with him,” she tells CBS 2’s Courtney Gousman.

Thursday proved to be one of the worst days of her life.

While she was burying her husband, someone broke into her home and turned it upside down.

“Unbeknownst to me, there are people walking through this house, stealing things from me and violating me,” Traicoff says.

She says burglars got away with jewelry, electronics, Christmas gifts, guns, and even condolence cards filled with cash and checks.

Of the burglars, she says: “How does your life become so disconnected, that a good idea to you sounds like breaking into a person’s house … Did you sit in your car and laugh at the condolence cards?”

To add insult to injury, Traicoff says she had new deadbolts installed a day before the break-in because she suspected someone might try to take advantage of her absence.

She thinks the obituary announcing her husband’s death and service times led to her becoming a victim.

“Never put an obituary in a paper ever again,” she says. “Just put their name and then put funeral services are private.”

Traicoff says all of this has ruined her view of Christmas. Her late partner, George, was the second husband she’s had to bury.