To the inhuman pig that broke into our home

The BBQ Pit
1

Dear lowlife,

It has been three days since you broke my window. It’s been three days since I woke from the couch, looked directly in the direction of my kitchen window, did not see you on the other side, and scolded my cats for knocking shit over while I’m trying to sleep. Three days since I walked RIGHT BY YOU and took my medication before retreating to my bedroom for another hour or two of sleep.

It has been three days since you waited for me to crawl into bed before opening my window, taking my purse from the table and using my keys to let yourself into my house with my sleeping family and terrified cats.

I miss our things. I miss my engagement ring. I miss my car. My son and fiance’ miss their video games. I really miss my ipod. I miss stupid things like my bent up Frys discount tab on my keychain and the highlighter pen I’d purchased in hopes of making that Eternal Golden Braid book easier to absorb.

It hurts everytime I look at my carpet and realized that your unworthy, greedy shoes trampled over our carpet, to my hallway and with my musical jewelry box, took every sense of security I’ve spent so long trying to feel.

I hate that you reminded me just how easy it’s been for men to take things from me that aren’t theirs… and to affect me and keep me scared. You have no idea what you took from me that morning. You have no idea how hard I’ve worked to trust people, to accept people.

What hurts the most is that these things you took are just that to you; things. Maybe something you can pawn or give to your girlfriend so she can pretend that you love her enough to give her something precious that you’ve worked hard to earn… but that would be a lie.

I hate that you don’t know how much it hurt to look my fiance’ in the eye Thursday morning and tell him that everything was gone. His wallet, my purse, our identification and bank cards. Everything that we grabbed every morning to remind us of who we are and where we belong.

I hate that you don’t know that my wedding is a week from today and the band that fit with my engagement ring will stand alone as a reminder of everything that we lost that morning.

And what I hate the most is that those “things” you took will never mean as much to you as they have to me. You will never, ever understand how much I valued each and every treasure that is now just a line item on a police report.

Did you know that the engraved music box that you took was a gift from my father two months before he went into respiratory failure and it was something he and his new wife had given me the last time I saw him without tubes running from everywhere into machines that beeped and hummed and terrified me every moment that I was at his bedside?

Did you know that I touched that music box and cried when I thought about losing him? I would wind it up and listen to “I just called to say I love you” and polish the inscription on it, “Our Shannon, Our Daughter, Our Everything” it said. What good is that to you?

Did you know that my fiance’s mom trusted and loved me enough to give the diamond passed down in her family to my fiance’ for my engagement ring? Did you know that I cried the night I got it because I felt like I didn’t deserve it? I watched it like a hawk and always knew where it was. I was so scared of knocking the stone loose and of the disappointment that would ensue should I ever let anything happen to it.

Did you know that the iPod was a Christmas gift? A surprise on Christmas morning. I had asked for a $50 small, generic mp3 player and my fiance’ thought it would be sweet to surprise me with a 30gig video ipod, effectively wiping out his bank account in the process.

That car that you’re destroying is my first new car. I named her Pele and she’s the first car that I’ve ever taken painstaking care of. I always made sure her oil was changed and I never put cheap gas in her.

You took her from her home and put cheap fucking corrosive ARCO gas in her with OUR MONEY. What the fuck is wrong with you?!?!?!? I have been ass broke and still managed to put decent gas in her, she was that important to me. It wasn’t your money and it isn’t your car and I hate you for what you’ve done.

Every morning I find something else that is missing. WHY DID YOU TAKE MY MAKEUP BOX?! ITS CHEAP, USED MAKEUP! The only thing good in the box was my good eyebrow pencil. Do you know how hard it is to get a new license and interact with people right after you’ve been robbed when you have eyebrows that’re too short and no foundation?!?! Jesus. That was pretty low.

My son’s Nintendo DS was a gift from us as a late birthday/early Christmas present because we wanted to wait for the Mario Kart collectors edition to come out as a surprise for him. The Megaman game inside was something he bought with gift cards from family and money he earned.

My fiance’s DS and bazillion games will do you no good. I honestly can’t imagine that you’d put the time and effort to win a video game, you greedy and impatient piece of shit. If you would, I suppose that maybe you’d try working for a living instead of stealing from people who do.

There are so many more things… and each one of them was important to me for a special reason. Fuck you for being so callous and ignorant. Fuck you for making an already stressful time almost unliveable and fuck you for being alive and okay somewhere, with or without half of our life.

Now that we have that out of the way, I can thank you. Thank you for reminding me that even though so many of our things are gone, we are not. Even our cats are okay, no thanks to you, Mr. Leaves-the-front-door-ajar-on-his-way-out.

Thank you for reminding me that I am surrounded by people who love me and care what happens to my family. Thank you for inspiring the least likely acquaintances to offer their help and even to bring me a new makeup box with a few assorted pieces of makeup to me on their lunch break.

Thank you for bringing my family closer together and reminding us all how lucky we are to be alive and to have one another.

Please don’t, for even a moment, think that I do not know how lucky of a girl I truly am. I do work and I do try to lead a life that allows me a few luxuries here and there, but I have been saved by many a dire situations by my mom and my stepdad, my sister and my brother-in-law, my best friends and my thoughtful co-workers. I am a lucky, lucky girl to have the support network that I do and that is something that you cannot take for your own, no matter what you do. And I am sorry that you weren’t as lucky. I really am. I don’t like that I exist in a world where some have so little in the way of love and security that they can grow up to be who you are.

Thank you for reminding me how important it is to be kind to others and to recognize that without love and patience and support, humans can turn from amazing and basically good creatures into vile dogs much easier than any of us would like to believe.

I think that’s all I need to share with you right now. My wedding is still in one week and I intend to be there with bells on. I will walk down an aisle, surrounded by people who love us and whose presence continually light up our lives.

Only my base lizard brain hopes that my car blows up with you in it. The part of me that feels love and respect and even empathy for those that I share this world with just hopes that you might understand what you’ve done and in future, do something to enhance this world that you and I live in together. I hope that you will learn that what was given to you isn’t nearly as important as what you will give to others. The measure of a man isn’t in how he is loved but how he loves others. I hope that you will teach your children better than you were taught and I hope that someday you will come to feel a connection to your fellow man, because that is a beautiful, indescribable feeling… Empathy towards other humans is is peppered with anguish for those who are hurting… but it is also what lifts us up and reminds us that we are never alone in this world.

My family and I are going to be okay. These things can be replaced and the memories and heartfelt gestures of those “irreplacable” items will always be with us.

I hope that someday you will grow as a person enough to care.
Sincerely,

Shannon

2

If it’s any solace, the burglar has probably by now lost another tooth to his meth addiction.

3

I’m very sorry to hear about this, but I’m also left feeling that you are very lucky that someone bold enough to break in while you were there didn’t hurt anyone. That, at least, is a good thing.

4

Oof. And because I realize that I forgot to mention it, my dad made a recovery that was nothing short of miraculous.

He went Kayaking Friday afternoon for his 51st birthday. :slight_smile: Thank goodness that music box (music/jewelry… it held a few things, like my engagement ring) wasn’t the last memory I had of him…

I will see him in Vegas in less than a week. I can’t wait to see him smile again.

5

Heh, you may be right.

We tracked down my fiance’s bank card charges to the ARCO and a Filibertos and I even got to see the young man briefly on ARCO’s surveillance tape. He didn’t look strung out or unhealthy.

Unfortunately, I probably wouldn’t be able to pick him out in a lineup. He is a non-descript hispanic male in his early 20’s (maybe even late teens) with dark skin and a medium build… in Phoenix.

But you know, I didn’t catch a good look at his teeth, so maybe they are messed up.

AND! My car recently started having brake problems… which now makes me happy in a mean, sadistic sort of way.

6

I am grateful that I wasn’t killed, I really am. I know he had to have seen me walk through the house… I walked RIGHT by the kitchen window after I woke to a noise… but you know, my cats are fat and they romp alot at night, knocking things over.

I’m SOO grateful that my son didn’t wake up and catch this guy in our livingroom. A defenseless and sleepy 11 yr old stick figure is no match against a home invader, I’m sure.

But I hope that he doesnt, for even a moment, think that he is possibly a decent person because he didn’t hurt or kill us. There are alot of ways to hurt people. He just avoided one.

7

Your post brought back some scary memories for me.

When I was eleven, our house was broken into. It was a warm September night and my parents had left their bedroom windows wide open. Even though they were on the second floor, it was an invitation to every John, Dick, and Dirty Harry.

He came in and took my mom’s purse, which was sitting right on the floor next to her as she slept. What was inside that purse? My mom’s car keys. He took my Dad’s suits from the closet. He took me and my sister’s violins. He took the family’s minivan. All while we fucking slept. If it hadn’t been for the loudass attic fan, I think SOMEONE would have heard. I’m almost glad that didn’t happen. Who knows if the guy was armed?

I guess I should be grateful he didn’t kill us all.

Seventeen years later, I still relive the fear we all experienced upon waking up. It never goes away. I still have nightmares about burgulars and creeps walking around in my bedroom. I still wake up in the middle of the night with severe dread, afraid that if I open my eyes I’ll see “him”.

Thieves and rapists are the worst. I hate them so much I could fucking kill them.

I sympathize with you, and I hope the memories behind those sentimental items continue to stay with you.

8

I don’t understand how someone can sleep through all of this.

I once awoke with a start because I heard someone in the bushes 5 feet away from my house, raising the window and yelling was enough to send him scampering away.

9

I’m sorry for your loss.

Our home was broken into, three days after Christmas. In broad daylight. They caught the criminals (with our help) and we got a lot of our stuff back, but not my deceased grandmother’s ruby ring, or my purse with its assorted trinkets. Or the picture of my cherished cat who’d recently died - they’d discarded it from my locket to put their son’s photo in instead. How weird would you have to be to do something like that?

You might try checking pawn shops for your stuff. Our burglars were so lazy, they tried to sell stuff right in our town of 36,000 people. Of course the guy at the stamp store recognized my Hubby’s box of duplicates, having been alerted that it had been stolen. Your criminals are likely just as stupid.

It’s an awful feeling to know that horrible people can insert themselves into your life and there’s nothing you can do about it.

10

Has this experience in any way changed your views or outlook regarding home security, illegal immigration, et al.?

11

That’s the thing. My father is notorious for being a light sleeper. I always thought of myself as a light sleeper.

My father, who’s a devout Christian, says that angels protected all of us that night. I’m inclined to agree. I really don’t think it would have been good if my father had woken up and tried to be a hero. Not in that neighborhood.

12

She is a week away from a wedding and was likely exhausted. I’m normally a pretty light sleeper, but there have been times even the smoke alarm hasn’t woken me up. Sometimes, you just don’t wake up because you’re that worn out. Besides, if she lives by a busy street or in an otherwise noisey area, she may have learned to tune out many sounds that would wake up someone living in a quieter location.

So sorry you got burgled. I had that happen years ago and it was really hard. I didin’t have much that couldn’t be replaced by insurance (nothing sentimental was taken), but feeling safe in the place again took a long time.

One thing that helped was calling in a professional maid service to do a really thorough cleaning of the place. I also had the carpets steamed. It wasn’t as if the place was really messed up, but somehow it felt better knowing I’d had any traces of the jerk cleaned away. In my case, insurance covered it.

13

Again, I heard something, but in my sleepy haze I just thought that the cats had knocked something over while chasing eachother around. Little did I know that they were both running from the same thing.

Once they had my purse, they could’ve been pretty quiet. The things that they took were all in the livingroom/dining area or on the bar that separates the livingroom from the kitchen.

It’s a huge apartment complex and we’ve learned to sleep through footsteps and talking, because there’s alot of that at all hours of the night.

My sons room is the closest to the livingroom and sometimes he doesn’t wake up unless you raise your voice and bounce on the other side of his bed.

We’re all pretty heavy sleepers. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d caught him. If he ran, great. If he pulled a gun… then what? I would rather call my mom with the news about the break in than have the police call her to announce a murder, you know?

14

I just find it disconcerting that someone could have so many things stolen from their home while they were there sleeping.

I’m really a difficult sleeper, I have trouble getting to sleep unless things are completely silent, and I also like it to be as close to 100% darkness as possible. So I’m guessing the reason I get roused by the slightest noise is I’m so accustomed to almost complete silence. For example one time my sister, her husband, and their son were staying at my house. Their son has been known to sleepwalk from time to time. I woke up in my bed with a start, no idea why because I didn’t hear anything, I just knew something wasn’t right. I walked downstairs and as I walked through the living room I could just “sense” someone was in there. I knew that my nephew was a sleepwalker so I turned on the lights fully expecting to see him there, and it was him, standing near the front door in a daze.

@Malkavian you live in an apartment complex? Was the window on the first floor?

I’m also sorry you got robbed, but no matter the sentimental value of anything you lost it is good you see they’re just things. Even if your insurance doesn’t fully compensate you, you are still alive.

However this may also be a good chance to try and give everyone bit of advice. I used to live in an apartment complex long ago that was in kind of a bad area of town. I was always careful to keep my door locked and etc. I got in the habit of keeping anything of value stored away in drawers, in my desk in my bedroom etc. This after one time I had a few people over and the next morning I found that several things had been stolen (that I was in the habit of leaving out.) I still do that to this day, I keep most of my electronics and other “tempting targets” that could easily be snatched at least put away to a degree. Nothing can guarantee you won’t get stuff ripped off, even a home vault, but keeping things out of plain sight can make it difficult for thieves who are time constrained. The worst rip-offs I’ve ever been associated with have been when friends of mine who live in rural areas have groups of thieves break in while they are at work. Since their homes weren’t in view of anyone else’s these guys literally took truckloads out. They even ripped his home safe out of the wall and stolen large furniture items. If you’ve ever seen Risky Business, this guy’s place was literally close to being that ripped off.

15

Of course not - he’s pure scum. I just think that someone willing to break into an occupied house is extremely dangerous, because he’d have to have a plan if he were confronted, and I’m glad you didn’t have to find out what that plan was.

Please tell us your home owner’s covers some of this.

16

First floor and the kitchen window is in almost an alcove, so it would’ve been fairly easy for them to work on the window with no one noticing.

Our apartment is in the middle of this complex though… and it’s the largest apt community in the state. I would really like to know what he’d be doing strolling around in the wee hours of the morning here, you can’t get to my apartment from the street or anything.

In addition to storing valuables in less obvious places, I’ve also added dowels to every window and the arcadia door, added double butterfly clamp locks to the windows and am in the process of adding pressure sensors with loud alarms.

I will be investing in a better car security alarm in future as well, though it wouldn’t have done any good since they left with my keys.

17

Aaaaand I’ll be getting Renter’s insurance, which I should’ve had. :smack:

18

The answer is in bold. In a large community, it’s impossible to know who does and doesn’t belong, so anyone could walk in off the street. He could walk around looking for ground-floor apartments with a purse in plain view, and if confronted, he could just say he couldn’t sleep and he’s out for a late-night walk.

19

Well, Martin, on that night a constellation of things occurred. 1) My parents left the TV on. We had all been watching the Seoul Olympics in their room before going off to bed, and they simply didn’t turn it off. 2)The attic fan was on in addition to the little oscillation fan and my mother’s incredibly loud snoring, furthering contributing to the noise 3) our minivan was parked right under the roof, enabling the burgular to gain access to the second floor quite easily. All he had to do was get onto the roof of the van and jump.

So our house made for an easy target.

After that incident, my parents did take some protective measures. As malkavia has done, he put dowels in all the windows. My parents also now have a “no keys visible from the windows” rule. If you leave your keys on the dining room table, for instance, they will take them and put them in a drawer or other inconspicuous place.

Our house got broken into a couple of times afterwards, but not while we were there.

20

Situations like that are precisely why we keep dogs. We have a huge meremma who wouldn’t hurt a fly, but barks like mad and looks fierce to non dog people. Before her we had a doberman who also wouldn’t harm a flea but was, well, a doberman, so people were scared of her. We’re the only house on our street to never have been broken in to.