SAD TIMES!!!

Someone (or some persons) broke into our home this week. They got in through a basement window. They hit the kitchen, office, our bedroom, and the living room. From what we can tell, they didn't even go into the guest room, and we think that is because Hugo was in there. Lesson #1: keep all your valuables in the same room as your dog. They didn't really take much from the kitchen, but they opened every cabinet and every drawer. They were very thorough. They basically cleaned out the entire office which included our mac, a printer/copier/scanner, a new canon photo printer, two digital cameras, keyboard, mouse, wireless router, modem, and among other things, or safe. Unfortunately they also found where the keys were stashed...but fortunately they grabbed the wrong set of keys. They stole the keys to our bike locks, and I'm sure they thought they were stealing the keys to the safe. They must not have seen the keys to the safe sitting right next to the keys to our bike locks. Whew. At least that bought me time to cancel every credit card, put fraud alerts on every bank account, and put fraud alerts on our credit reports. OUR ENTIRE LIVES were in that safe. I won't go into detail on all of the MAJOR documents that were in that safe (lest some internet fraudster goes looking for it) but I will say that losing it was not good! - I should also mention Pete's pipes were stolen, which is really sad because they had sentimental value.

Also, we had somewhere around 2,500 pictures on our mac, and being the cautious and careful person I am, I backed up all of our pictures onto disc and stored them IN THE SAFE. So naturally, the pictures and the backups are now in the hands of some crack addict. I don't have any idea how they are going to get the safe open, but I could imagine a group of crack addicts who are convinced that the safe holds diamonds and cash - they will find a way. I would love to be a fly on the wall when they finally get it open and realize it only holds paper that means nothing to them and means everything to us. Lesson #2: get a safety deposit box. While a safe protects against flood, fire, nuclear war, it is not crack-addict-proof...unless it is in the room with the dog.

Moving on to the bedroom - For some reason they stripped everything off of our bed. I guess maybe they thought we kept cash and diamonds in the sheets. They went through all of the drawers and Pete's closet (my closet is in the room with dog...Good job, Hugo!). However, they stole 95% of my jewelry (I'd like to take a quick moment of silence to reflect on my jewelry........). The 5% they didn't take included a necklace and earrings that were in my purse, three pairs of earrings that were in the bathroom (and apparently they didn't hit the bathroom), and one necklace that was in the same pile of jewelry they did steal. I'm not sure what to think of that one necklace now. Should I be insulted that they didn't like that necklace? ...it is a fine necklace! Or did they have pity on me...thinking they should leave me with one little necklace to wear. They also stole some other major things, but I won't get into that. It takes too long.

Moving on to the living room - We're not sure what happened when they got to the living room. They pulled the armoire out and slid the tv, so it's obvious they tried to take it and changed their minds. It could be that something scared them so they just grabbed the PS2, controllers, games and left. Or it could be that they realized their get-away was getting full, and the larger electronics wouldn't fit. The only things they stole from the living room were the PS2 and all related equipment/games and our phone chargers. Not sure how much crack they'll get from a couple of 3 year old phone chargers...but they're gone regardless.

Now for the get-away 'vehicle'. Apparently the took our metro trash can, dumped all of our trash into our back yard, filled up the trash can with all of our valuables, and walked away via the alley. The cops said this is a common get-away for poor crack-head thieves.

Now we're taking things one step at a time trying to pick up all the pieces and plug all the holes, so to speak. Lesson #3: People who live close to crack addicts should have a home alarm system. So, we're pricing home alarm systems, and we're working with insurance to get the replaceable items replaced. Lesson #4: We were very wise to have home owners insurance! IT HELPS! While there were so many item and files that can never be replaced (and I won't go into how majorly depressing that is), I have to say it is kind of fun to start shopping for replacements. We're hoping to use this opportunity to upgrade our mac to a macbook pro, which is super exciting.

If you ever meet some illegal alien with my name, see if you can get all my documents back.