That is really crummy. I’m wondering how they got in; was it you who said “… they used fake keys”? And I also wonder if the ATM has a camera attached that might have gotten a photo of the person trying to use your card.
That bites, bigtime. Just the same, glad you’re all unhurt-including the happy mudsplasher!
They got in by breaking the lock on my front door. As for the ATM question, I dunno, but I’m sure the police will be on it. In fact, when the police officer came to take the report, he asked which ATM the card had been tried at. We hadn’t even thought to ask!
danceswithcats, sort of a funny story about this whole thing and our happy little mudsplasher. A couple of months ago, she and I were in the Goodwill (I buy all my baskets there, because they’re too expensive elsewhere). Well, while I looked at baskets, mudsplasher looked at toys. She brought two toys in with her: Tinky Winky (her favorite lovey) and “puppy”. Well, before I was finished shopping, she decided she had to go potty. I had to take her to another store in the shopping center to go potty; she brought Tinky Winky to the other store with her, but by the time we returned to the Goodwill, someone had bought “puppy”! Well, I consoled her by telling her “puppy” went to a new home. This morning, when the computer and my purse were discovered missing, she opined that they “went to a new home, like puppy”. Ah, the simplistic outlook of little kids!
OK, glad you came out of it unhurt, but if you find out who did it, try not to over-react.
EvilCaptor, I really am trying to keep it in perspective; I’m really grateful that it wasn’t worse. It’s still a little bit hard to swallow, though.
That’s terrible! I hope the crooks manage to get themselves caught trying to pawn the stolen items or using the credit cards.
Another thing to worry about (not to add more to what I’m certain is already a long list) is any personal information stored on the notebook – especially bank account numbers and passwords if you do any online banking with that machine. Now might be a good time to change passwords on all sorts of things.
I’m sure you’ve already thought about this and taken care of such things, but it’s worth mentioning just in case. Good luck with retreival/replacement.
Fortunately, my hubby’s area of expertise is data safety. He never did banking on that machine. In fact, it was mostly used as an extra internet source, when all our big computers were in use (or when it was just easier to sit in his recliner and access the 'net). Just lately, he’s been using it to fine-tune his resume, but fortunately had everything backed up to our main machine.
Thanks for the advice, anyway; you never know what we might miss! And, yes, we’ve got tons of stuff to take care of tomorrow!
C’mon, norinew, I was just having fun with the existence of two threads with similar themes. I know if I were burgled, I would be having fantasies about going after the perps with a baseball bat. Wouldn’t act 'em out, but I’d think about 'em. 
I was a victim too. One day I came home for lunch (yeah, yeah, I live in Latin America, some of us take two hours lunch break and siesta, shut up now) and found the front door unlocked and our bedroom was a mess. My underwear was strewn all over the room, my, er, toys were on the floor, all the drawers were open. My passport, jewels (old family stuff, I don’t use jewelry) and laptop were gone.
I was PISSED! I felt violated, I didn’t want to sleep on that bed or that room for a long time. My now husband was on a trip so I was all by myself. I had nightmares and daydreamed about catching him and torturing him to death. I became paranoid.
That was 2 years ago and things have calmed down, but I am still a bit paranoid. And from time to time I still have fantasies about torturing that stinking thief. Don’t worry, I am peacenik, but I am free to fantasize, am I not?
And BTW, I am like your daughter. I work at home and I usually go to bed after 4 AM.
Sorry to hear about this, Norine. I’m glad you guys are all safe, but still, it really sucks.
Yeah, that jibes with my reaction. We were broken into back in '02 (you can probably find the thread if you search) and my main reaction was how stupid they were. They took small, obvious stuff and left the really good stuff, including Lady Chances jewelry, behind. They got away with the television, a DVD player without a remote (they left it behind), a small dremel and a $10 camera.
Hell, they opened the jewelry case, took out the gold and gemstone stuff, and left it on the bed. I guess they figured it was costume.
They ended up getting $75 for the stuff at a pawnshop in West Virginia…and we never got it back.
But I was really pissed off that my burglars were so damn STUPID.
Irrational, I know, but that’s how it hit me.
Almost all ATMs are equipped with fascia cams nowadays. Most bad guys know where the cams hide in the fascia and attempt to block them.
Funny story-back when ATM cameras were new technology, the company I worked for had installed one for PSFS using a Betamax recorder. A customer reported a fraud loss on her card, and I was summoned to replay data. Loss prevention officer, Phila detective, bank manager and I all crowd into a room and the portion of video is located, based on transaction time.
The person using the card was wearing a polka-dot dress and a do-rag on her head-identical to the person seated outside claiming the loss. When shown the video, she said, “That’s not me.”
As they say on Fark, hilarity and jailarity ensued.
Rar 
That totally sucks!
I’m glad you all are okay, though.
Hope they catch 'em!
I am so sorry that you got robbed. Lik eeveryone says, it’s a blessing it was just “stuff”.
Our house got robbed in 1997 (when I was 18) and I am STILL not over it!! I haven’t been able to stay home alone in the house until this year, when I got a dog.
I feel sorry fo ryour kid, too. When we were robbed, the guys took jewelery and my dad’s seriously valuable baseball card collection (happy note: they happened to be included on the homeowners insurance, he had them all recorded, and they were REPLACED! (and are now in a very large, very secure safe thankyouverymuch)) and made a mess, but the thing that made me the most upset was that they took my brand new sneakers that I had saved up money all year to buy. And we’re talking Airwalks, not Jordans
I hope she doesn’t get as spooked about it as I did. Poor kid.
Isn’t it odd that they waited until after 4:30am to break in? If your daughter went to bed at 4, she probably didn’t fall asleep for about 20 minutes or so, so if they were watching for lights to go off, they would wait awhile for her to fall asleep. At least around here, we start waking up at 5am to go to the bathroom! It seems risky to wait that late, especially if they knew she was up and about. But a worse thought is, what if they had broken in earlier and found her up and awake? How scary that would have been. By the way, what does your 13-year-old DO until 4am? Read? TV? Video games? Computer? Or is she up and moving around? And was it just luck that they broke in after she fell asleep, or were they outside watching? Unless they specifically wanted to break in to your house for a specific item, why would they wait around? Why not move on to a house where eeryone’s already asleep?
See? These are the type of questions that drove me crazy when our apartment was broken into. We weren’t home at the time, fortunately. The police asked us if anyone had made a sandwich…apparently they’d had a string of break-ins where the thief had stopped to make a snack and of course left the mess out on the counters! All we lost was a VCR, a pair of binoculars and a pair for leather gloves, though they tried to take the microwave. We know it had to be one of our neighbors because of the timing and the configuration of the building and the area.
kittenblue, as for what my daughter is doing all night, this is what she does: watch TV, play on the computer, talk to a friend of hers on the phone who is likewise a night-owl. Yes, the thought that they could have broken in while she was still awake occurred to me. Very lucky that they didn’t; the poor thing would have been traumatized! (She’s very sensitive, emotionally).
I’m wondering if it might be someone who is familiar with us and our schedule.
To everyone else, thanks for your well-wishes and stories. Today will be busy getting a replacement drivers’ license, keys, etc. Not to mention re-keying things.
Were your doors unlocked? How did they get in the house and how did you not wake up?
As I said earlier:
I don’t know how we didn’t hear them, except that our bedrooms are upstairs.
We never locked up before, and then we got hit twice in one week. The husband bought an alarm system. It’s a pain in the ass, and I honestly think it’s a bit of overkill. We were hit by kids, and they didn’t take anything that wasn’t easily concealed or explainable to the parental units.
It’s a very creepy feeling. I didn’t want to go home anymore after that. The cops were going to do a stake-out, but the dept. wouldn’t give them the money.
They took all our CDs, knives, leather jacket, beer, change, etc. Muthafuckas.
If the door is unlocked it is quite easy not to wake up. I didn’t wake up until the guy was in actually in my bedroom.