I was robbed 2...

Yesterday, I went to a friend's wedding. I was their picture-taker (I hesitate to say photographer because it was too much pressure). It was a great day, great wedding, and the pictures turned out fantastic. The day didn't end so well. I had every intention of coming home and writing a new blog, but got sidetracked. When I went to my car, I noticed my stuff was lying on the seat of my car then I noticed that my car radio was gone. My passenger side doors were open, but I don't ever leave my car unlocked, so I knew someone had been in it (duh, right, it's not like I carried the radio into the reception with me). So I went back and talked with a police officer who was at the wedding. He gave me a number to call and said I could call from home - he actually said that the house I was parked in front of was a major meth house that they kept trying to catch, but hadn't yet been able to. When I got back to my car, I realized that they had in fact broken my car window the back passenger (triangle one). I called the police as I drove home.

I was initially very pleased with how I was handling the situation - I wasn't freaking out, until I went to bed and when I got to thinking of them going through my glove box and having my address, I did freak a little. Anyhow, so the new blog was put on hold and I thought I would re-post one I had written for another blog back when my house break-in happened. It follows:


I WAS ROBBED!

Okay, so last week – not one of my better weeks. On Tuesday, I had decided that after my last appointment I was going to go and see Ice Age 2 for several reasons – one, I couldn’t find it listed when it is coming out on DVD and I really wanted to see it, 2. It was playing at the cheap theater in West Omaha, and 3. I had an appointment out that way. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I forgot the theater wasn’t a Douglas Theater, so there was no cotton candy – much to my disappointment. Anyway, I then headed home; glad it was early enough that I would still be able to get some stuff done.

I walked into my house about 9:15 and noticed that my living room lamp was knocked over and my laptop was not on the chair next to the couch (where I often use it). I assumed my dog had gotten out of the kitchen and somehow knocked it down. But as I walked to the kitchen I noticed the baby gate was still up and the dog was in the kitchen. I remember thinking, ‘Okay, if Elvis got out here and knocked it down, how did he get back into the kitchen without knocking the baby gate down?' That’s when I turned on the dining room light and noticed that my laptop was gone. Elvis was sitting in the kitchen looking out the back door and I went to let him out and noticed that my backdoor was broken in half. I let the dog out, odd I know, and grabbed the phone to call 911.

911 tells me to get out of the house until they can get someone there to search it. Two officers show up – one male and one female. They thoroughly search the house and I have to admit I was very relieved. They were in there for quite a while and only used their flashlights – which unnerved me a little. I kept wondering how I would know if they were in their and had attacked the police. Eventually they came out – I was frustrated from the get-go – they were way too casual. The let me know that the crime lab wasn’t coming out because they said the door was painted and they wouldn’t be able to get any prints off of that, hmmmm…the screen door which they had to open first was metal. Then lying in the middle of the living room is the hammer they used to pry the deadbolt out when they snapped the door in half. Now I pointed this hammer out to the police several times. They instead went to interview my neighbors to see if they saw anything – the one set of neighbors that I know was home, didn’t answer the door when he knocked on it (I know because they were sitting on the porch when I got home – now, I don’t know exactly when the robbery happened because they had about a 6 hour block of time to look and take things.) Thankfully, they only took a few things – my laptop, digital camera, flashcard and a cheap DVD player (which was sitting right next to my Xbox – isn’t that weird?).

There is one thing that I am still thinking was funny. Before they went to search the house, I thought of telling them ‘I’m gay,’ as a kind of warning in case they questioned the new Playgirl lying on the living room floor, the shirtless male calendars I have hanging in a couple of rooms, the lube I have sitting on the back of the couch and a couple other areas around the house – lol. I was going to do this as a kind of apology, in case the saw anything they didn’t want to see, and then I thought – ‘Why, what does that matter – they still have to search my house?’

So the officer comes back and says that he was only able to talk with one of my neighbors and they didn’t see anything. He gives me the report number and tells me that a detective should be calling in a few days and when I have the serial numbers for the items stolen (if I have them) to call him with those. I ask again about the hammer – he says, ‘oh, that’s not your hammer?’ I’m like, ‘no, I told you that,’ (At LEAST 3 times). So he says he will go back and call the crime lab and ask them. He comes back in and says they are not coming out, but he is to take the hammer with him. He takes a piece of notebook paper out of his notebook – wraps it around the hammer and carries it out. But he also comments, ‘well this is wood – so they won’t be able to get a print off of this, either.’ Nice, huh?

I block the door really good, so that no one is getting in that way – of course, until the door is fixed, I’m not getting out that way either. Tomorrow is a week since the robbery and I still have not heard anything from the detective. I have called several times to try and give the serial numbers of the items I have and to report that one more item was stolen – a flashcard, but the number is always busy. I found another piece of evidence that I have been trying to report too, but I can’t get through.

The night after the robbery – I was BBQ-ing for me and a friend that was coming over and as I was going up the deck, I kept getting a feeling that something was out of place. Finally after my third time of passing it, I realize what it is – there is a large can of one of those energy drinks sitting right there on the post of my deck – I try calling the detective although I am sure they will not do anything with it either. I finally put a plastic bag over it and picked it up – very carefully and have it saved on my front porch. I will try again when I go home for lunch to call and see what is up, but I really am having a hard time getting through to anyone. I have a co-workers brother who works in the crime lab – I am thinking about asking her about this.

The thing that really un-nerves me about the whole day last Tuesday, is that there is a part of me that wonders if they were in my backyard when I was home for lunch. First of all my gate was in the closed position, but the locking mechanism wasn’t down – I never, never forget to close that – I have even left messages for the mailman that he needs to close it as I have a dog and he could get out. And then, I don’t really know how to describe it, but I remember thinking that my dog was acting a little weird. I don’t completely know how to describe it – but one of the things that he was doing was watching the back door as if he was looking for someone to come in and I don’t know what else to say – it was just my intuition that had me thinking that he was acting a little different. Subdued, if that makes sense.

Okay, so for the last week – I have barely left the house.On Friday I returned to work and spent the majority of the in and out of mini-panic attacks (I’ve never had one but I am assuming that when your heart starts beating rapidly and your breathing begins to be strained and rapid – it’s a panic attack). I am better now, but still constantly wanting to run home to make sure everything is okay. I have been tearing up at the drop of a hat – you know a friend or family member gives me that look of ‘I’m sorry’ and I just well up with tears. It’s been nice to have support of family and friends, and I realize how lucky I am that I have renters insurance, that they took as little as they did, that I wasn’t home when it happened and that no one was hurt. I know that even though there is this fear of ‘they know what else I have now,’ statistically it is very rare that they ever return to the same house, but still…