Sunday, May 18, 2008
We were robbed while on vacation!
A while back I wrote about how I needed to declutter our house. I never imagined that I'd be forced to de-clutter to an extent by getting robbed!Yes, while we were on vacation, our house was broken into (the robber(s) somehow forced open our sliding glass door in the back of the house) and many rooms were ransacked. Drawers and boxes were thrown on the floor and overturned, with papers and clothes scattered everywhere.
Oronzo's sister was actually the one to discover the break-in when she stopped by the day before yesterday to pick up something that she wanted to borrow. She contacted us in Mexico to let us know.
I spent the rest of our vacation stressing about the robbery, wondering what had been taken and feeling angry that someone felt they had the right to break into our house to steal from us! Coming home to the mess late last night was awful! We tried to shield Snuggle Bug from the mess as much as possible. Thankfully his room wasn't too bad. The girls' room was a mess but they're too young to notice and we tackled their room first to set it right.
Here's the list of things that I've noticed thus far that were stolen:
* Princess cut ruby in gold band setting (This was a family heirloom. It was a gift from my aunt that was given to my mother on her high school graduation day. My aunt, whom I was named after, died when I was very young. My mom treasured this ring and as a little girl she told me it would one day be mine. She gave it to me last year. I was honored to have it and I treasured it greatly. Now it's gone, stolen and probably pawned by now. This is the one item that hurts me the most to have stolen because of the sentimental value.).* Pear shaped ruby necklace and matching ruby earrings (gifts from Oronzo for one of my birthdays). These can be easily replaced.
* Custom made Mother's Day necklace with Snuggle Bug's birthstone set in it. This breaks my heart that it's gone but Oronzo thinks he can go back to the jeweler and have it re-created.
* My celtic cross from Ireland. I guess I'll have to go back to Ireland and find another one.
* About $200 worth of costume jewelry.
* My Palm Tungsten T2 PDA.
* An old Nikon CoolPix 5400 digital camera.
* About $100 in change that I was collecting in a big jar in my bedroom.
* My mountain bike (and Oronzo's as well, along with the child carrier that he had attached to his bike).
* A laptop NIC.
* Oronzo's iPod Shuffle.
* Oronzo's big jar of change from his office.
It freaks me out to think that someone (or several people) were in our house, tearing through our drawers, the children's rooms, and creating a huge mess in the process. I feel violated! We live in a nice, quiet neighborhood but that doesn't matter.
Looking back, I realize we might have done things to prevent this from happening. We could've asked our neighbors or Oronzo's sister to check in on our house frequently. We could've left at least one of our cars in the driveway to make it appear as though someone was home. We could've had better locks on our sliding glass door. We could've had our important jewelry locked up in a safety deposit box instead of assuming they'd be safe in our home.
In speaking with the police, we were told that they believe they're on to a man who they think is committing several burglaries in our area ON BICYCLE. This man goes in and only steals what he can carry on a bike. None of our big electronics were taken. Thankfully we had our laptops and good cameras and the camcorder with us on vacation. I can't help but think that whoever robbed us was not on bicycle. I think they walked into our back yard, broke in our house, stole the small stuff, and rode out on our bikes. Nice, eh?!
Oronzo, ever the optimist, said that we need to be thankful that they didn't clean out our entire house (they had 8 days to do so) or that we weren't in town when it happened and stumbled upon them in the midst of robbing us and endangered us or the children as a result. And everything that was stolen is replaceable (except for the ring from my deceased aunt) and they are only possessions and therefor not all that important after all. I wish I could focus on the positives but I'm just feeling depressed about our house being trampled through by strangers! Yuck!
Now I wonder, do I tell my mom about the ring being stolen or do I wait until she asks after it? What would you do?
Has your house ever been broken in to? How long did it take you to feel safe in it again?
