BURLINGTON, Vt. -
"You're putting everything out there. You're at Miss America!" Katie Levasseur said.
Exciting, a bit nerve-wracking and magical: that's how Katie Levasseur remembers the night she competed in the Miss America pageant.
"There's no moment like that," she said.
The Northeast Kingdom farm girl turned beauty queen won the state title last year and scholarship money for UVM. She stepped onto the national stage in January as Miss Vermont, donning her favorite evening gown and jewelry designed to match.
"Not only were these items given to me, but they were custom designs," Levasseur said. "They're one of a kind."
She's still got the gown and her Miss Vermont crown, but her jewels have been swiped.
"It looks like glamour jewelry, used in pageantry, is missing at this point," Burlington Deputy Police Chief Andi Higbee said.
The jewelry was taken during a car break-in on Orchard Terrace in Burlington sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday. It was packed away in a suitcase. In the burglary process three pageant winners in Vermont were victimized.
"How we do things in Vermont is we all help each other," Levasseur explained. "I had loaned the jewelry to a former Miss Vermont, who was helping our brand new Outstanding Teen titleholder prepare for her national competition in a couple of weeks... All of the jewelry was stolen."
Levasseur's jewelry is valued at up to $800. But to her, the pieces are worth much more.
"That I wore these on the Miss Vermont stage when I won and on the Miss America stage when competing for Miss America, it has enormous sentimental value to me, as well," she said.
"Clearly, there's significant sentimental value associated with this jewelry and we want to do what we can to get it back to the rightful owner," Higbee said.
Levasseur knows police have their hands full with bigger crimes and says she sympathizes with other victims.
"You never really think it's going to happen to you and then it does," she said. "I really feel for anyone who's been affected by an uptick in crime and hope we can do something to solve it in the future."
Levasseur plans to visit coin and jewelry shops around the area to see if she can find her stolen pieces.
Police are using the incident to remind people to never leave valuables in the car.
