…I really wasn’t all that attached to the stereo, the video, the CDs, the console, the phone, the camera (with a year’s worth of undeveloped pictures in) or anything else that you took. And I quite enjoyed having to take time off work to get all of the door and window locks changed, to clean up the mess, to deal with the police at midnight and the scenes-of-crime officers the next day. What the hell, sleep is for wimps, right?
[sub]Sorry – to tired right now for creatively ferocious flaming. Will try again later.[/sub]
Shit, Matt, that really sucks. Wish I could do more than offer sympathy.
If you don’t mind me trying to find a little bit of humor in the situation, a year’s worth of undeveloped photos? You couldn’t have been too attached to them
Nah, seriously. I am really sorry to hear about this.
That sucks. There’s nothing worse than having your house burgled. My aunt was so upset that someone had been snooping around in her underwear drawer that she threw the whole lot out and went shopping for new.
I hope you have a decent insurance company so that you at least can replace your stuff.
It looks like it was a fairly professional job; they physically forced a window (ripping the locks right out of the frame) and took everything that could be resold – electrics, jewellery, wine, CDs etc – but left the big items like the PC (which is a crap old one anyway).
The big pain was getting all of the door locks changed (a spare set of keys went missing too) and getting steel bars welded over the windows (since the locks obviously didn’t stop them last time).
I’m fairly hacked off by the whole thing, but if I’m philosophical it could have been a lot worse, and I guess this is almost inevitable living in a big city. I’m too tired to wish that they burn in hell, so I’ll just settle for hoping that every time they (he?) tries to sleep there are really sharp crisp crumbs in the sheets.
Oh, man that sucks Matt. Which part of town do you live in again? I might want to advise my GF to get a few safety measures as well. She’s already seen weird looking strangers wandering around the backjard (which is somewhat accessible from the backs of a few shady stores on Notting Hill Gate).
Stereo, TV, that I could live with. But losing photos really, REALLY sucks.
Coldfire: Camden area. It’s not even that bad for burglaries, according to the forensics people that came round. The burglars are targetting things like laptops, cameras, videos, stereos, CDS etc – easily passed on. Get your GF to persuade her landlord to fit really good window locks; beyond that, all you can do is make sure you have personally valuable stuff hidden away.
The police don’t see much chance of getting the guy (sole description: one man, aged 30-40, very strong). I’m still wound up, but the landlord has been really good (new door locks the same day, steel bars welded over the windows today), and hopefully the insurance will cover some of the things. The photos, CDs and jewellery aren’t replaceable, unfortunately.
Been there, done that, and yes. It truly sucks. The one consolation was that you are able to learn what you can and can’t live without, and who your best friends are.
In my case it was a “revenge” burglery and in addition to the resaleable items, my clothes, toiletries, etc. were taken/destroyed, and they had a little party in the room as well. Anything they didn’t feel like taking was thrown in the closet and had shampoo, liquor and lord knows what else dumped on it. I came home to: my bed, my drafting table, and my dishes. They’d even eaten all the food.
Luckily I was in shock for several days, and several people helped me out. One friend loaned clothes, another loaned me a walkman and tapes so I didn’t have to spend my days in complete silence, one friend actually helped me clean up the mess (which was not to be believed, syringes and everything – yeeecch!) I think the weirdest thing was seeing my things for sale at the usual haunts, and KNOWING they were mine. Really unusual shoes, or a dress I’d made myself, etc.
At least for you the cops seemed to care about finding the guy. I know who did mine and had pictures of him and everything, but they sorta shrugged like they didn’t really care. That was probably the most frustrating thing of all.
Hang in there and keep us posted with how you’re getting along.
Ah, that really sucks, vogue. Fortunately they didn’t trash the place with me – I can’t imagine what that would have been like. All I can say is I hope you’ve recovered from it now, mate.
I share your pain. A low-life fucking worthless piece of offal, apparently believing itself to be a human being, stole my Camaro whilst I was at sea.
Of course, this wasn’t good enough. Said offal just had to strip the car and abandon it in a “No Parking” zone.
Yes, you guessed it. I got stuck with about $300.00 in parking tickets that, yes, I had to pay because, get this, the date on the freaking stolen car report was after the date on the damn tickets!
Well, the coppers did find the car and tow it (yep, “No Parking” zone was also a “Tow Away” zone, that’s why the tickets were so expensive) to the impound lot. Sweet deal is that I had to either (a) pay for the storage fees, which were a couple of weeks worth, or (b) sign the vehicle over to the county. I chose (b).
Next thing you know, some other low life offal, again believing itself to be a human being, buys the car and abandons it, after stripping what the first offal ignored, in yet another “Tow Away” zone. I get a freaking parking/towing ticket in the mail.
Luckily, my Division Officer on the CARL VINSON not only gave me the day off as Special Liberty (so I didn’t have to burn leave time) he also wrote out his opinion of the whole incident. I didn’t have to pay for the second offal’s stunt. But, yes, I’m still peeved at the first one’s. And, yes, I’m very happy I no longer live in or near Alameda, CA.
mattk that stinks. I went through a burglary 4 years ago, and to me, it was the knowing that they had gone through absolutely everything. They had obviously watched me long enough to figure out that once I went out for the day, I didn’t return until after 6PM. That freaked me out more than anything, I think.
I learned the value of renter’s insurance from that(I had none at the time), and now I am fully insured.
The other thing I had to deal with was the fact that they took 2 books of my checks and wrote them all over town. I had to go do affadavits of forgery, once I got copies of the returned checks, that is. I discovered the checks missing the the same day as the robbery, and had them listed on the police report. Even with that, it was a year before I got everything straightened out with Walmart(one reason why I hate that place).
The good news? They caught the guy a week later…breaking into someone else’s apartment, with a book of my checks in his car. Since he had written 5 VERY large checks at Walmart, they were able to get him for a seperate forgery charge on each one, not to mention the other checks he had written at the grocery, fast food places, etc.
