Reflection on Break-in

Thank you for all the well wishes and offerings to help after yesterday's break-in. Watching Miller, helping put up the plastic over the door (and bringing us beer!), making us supper so we didn't have to worry about that on top of all the BS that goes with filing and protecting ones-self, and general concern for us.

The scarriest part of the whole ordeal was Ryan calling to announce he thought we had been robbed, him saying something about he thinks they just left and then suddenly hanging up. I went into full panic mode, dialed 911, stated my emergency and address (got transfered), and had to repeat just my address and phone numbers. Luckily, my parents taught me to stay calm during calls like that. Then I shut down my computer, ran to my bosses office and muttered something probably totally incoherent, shoved my stuff in my bag, told security I was ok and that I did dial 911, and then got the hell out of work as fast as I could.

I didn't call Ryan back because I figured he was either fending off intruders or injured. He called me back after what seemed like an eternity which was probably only 5 minutes. The drive home was excrutiatingly slow and I think I balled the whole way home. I replayed leaving for work that morning and know for a fact that I locked the doors. During that drive, I was going over in my head what could have been taken, what it was going to take to replace, stop payment on, clean up, etc. I was very anxious to see Annie and Jazzy to make sure they were ok. Ryan had already told me he and Miller were ok. Then I thought of all the bad things that could have happened and braced myself for the worst. I knew in my head it was material stuff and we would be fine. Burglars usually don't come back to the same place twice, etc.

When I got home, Ryan was putting Miller in Jon's car so he could be out of the way (it was cold in the house, full of glass, and he couldn't touch anything). I continued to cry. Then I bucked up and entered the house. It was no where as bad as I had thought it would be.

In general, my new laptop, our camera (why did I insist on taking Miller's picture that morning, I could have left it in the guest room and they probably wouldn't have seen it), all my jewelry (lots of sentimental items), our watches (sentimental value also as two were gifts with engravings on them), and the most troublesome was my wallet. I have had my Guess wallet since I was 16 from my grandmother. For Xmas, I had taken only the necessities in a smaller wallet. We had locked that one in the safe but I took it out when we got home and grabbed other things out of it. I knew I should lock it back up but didn't. Since I can't remember what was all in it (account numbers, cards, etc.) I went into preventative mode.

Last night I stopped my credit card, my bank card, and our joint bank cards. I ran my credit report and spent the morning cancelling all the cards that showed up on that. I went to both banks and did the paper work to change accounts. (that is another smaller post all on it's own)

I woke up at 4am because Annie woke up. She had a bad tummy ache because we think they lured her with treats. She went outside several times between 4 and 6. Since I couldn't go back to sleep, I stayed up and worked for a couple hours. I also changed all my passwords to my accounts because my laptop had some of them as auto login.

The new glass was put in this morning and Ryan cleaned up the kitchen. We got our clothes put away and now I just need to vacuum and clean the floors (glass stuff still around).

There really isn't much I would do differently other than make sure I had better records of my credit cards, lock my wallet up, and in the future, keep my jewelry in the safe. If we had hurricane sliders that probably would have prevented the intrusion but you never know. The police were slow but the officer was super nice. He dusted for prints and got one. I doubt it will turn up anything because it wasn't a clear print and more than likely it was our own. I also doubt my stuff will turn up and be found at a pawn shop or the person caught but one can always hope. I also chuckle that the idiots got two jewelry boxes that were empty because I had saved the boxes to put Xmas gifts in. Suckers.

We were really lucky no one got hurt, they only tossed stuff and stole stuff. It wasn't smashed belongings or other large ticket items. I know I am still rattled by this. I have been trying to look at all the things we were lucky for and keep my head on. I have been violated. We have worked hard for the items that were taken from us and our family did too for the items that were gifts. Since Ryan's car was spray painted and now this, it makes me wonder what we did to deserve this. Then I chalk it up to pure luck/coincidence. We are nice people, we don't cause trouble with our neighbors, we work hard, we have a predictable schedule, and had an easy backdoor to get through.

Thank you again for your support and assistance. I think writing this blog was probably the most theraputic. If you read the whole thing, you are a trooper. Time to finish cleaning.