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I've been robbed
10-28-2010, 10:22 AM
I'd been hanging out over at my friends Glenn's house since after the Saturday night gaming session. I took my desktop computer with me. I sometimes do that. He catches me up on programs like Top Gear and
Mythbusters that I've missed. And sometimes we LAN game or play online
games like DDO or WoW or City of Heroes.
We went back to my house on late Sunday night to pick up a piece of
equipment that I'd left behind (a video monitor adapter). Everything was
fine then.
I got a call from Dad Tuesday evening, when he said he wasn't feeling well. He was having trouble forming sentences, though his actual speech was fine. His girlfriend Sharon was there and said she'd keep an eye on him until I got there. I left my stuff at Glenns and headed straight there to my dad's place. Well he'd taken some extra blood thinner and was feeling (and acting) much better. I spent
the night just to keep an eye on him. Then I went straight back to Glenn's where I had left my computer.
(I actually carry my desk top with me.)
I am very glad I did.
We caught up on Top Gear and the new Mythbusters and I had just logged into City of Heroes when Glenn's
cable and internet cut out. Well I was going to leave
that night or early Thursday anyway. So I packed up all my gear and headed home, where
I would have net connection.
When I got home and opened the door, I discovered that my house had been
broken into.
The bastards broke a window in the back near the carport where the
little fenced in yard is. Got in that way.
They "turned" my whole house.
The entire place is trashed.
I couldn't even tell what they might have taken at first, it was so bad.
After looking around in utter shock for several minutes and clearing a
path through the rubble, I figured out a few things.
They didn't take any of the TVs. Course they were all of the older type
and pretty worthless these days. (I don't watch TV at my house currently.)
They took a stereo system from my front room. I wasn't too upset about
that. I hardly ever listened to the thing and the CD changer broke a
while back.
They obviously saw the my old computer (that doesn't work) and a monitor
that I had sitting in the living room (that also doesn't work) and had
plugged them in. I guess when they couldn't get anything out of them
they just left them.
They took my PS2 and all my DVDs and games.
They took a couple of "Milk Lug" crates that I used as "shelving" with
the books in them. WHY? I don't know. Why would they take THOSE and not
the CDS? Sitting right next to them?
I'm actually more upset about that then about the other stuff which can be replaced. There were some old Animags and Fanzines from the 80s in there. History that I'll never get back. Bastards don't even know the worth. They probably just grabbed them to stuff the PS2 and DVDs into.
They opened or pried open everything. Including the water heater closet
and prying open an access panel to my plumbing.
Thankfully they seem to have left my art alone. As well as the vast
majority of my books and magazines and manga. But I'm not sure of the
damage at this point from being tossed all around. The art was in
binders and a thick folder with bubble wrap. So it looks ok. At first
glance my old vinyl LPs seem to be ok. I'll have to check more closely
when I start cleaning the place up.
And they took the key out of the lock of my front door when they left.
I'll have to have the locks changed and the window pane replaced.
There's no point I guess in calling the police at this point. What am I
going to tell them? Sometime between Sunday and Wednesday my house got
robbed? Yeah. That'll set them on the trail fast, you betcha.
I still have to clear a space off my bed to sleep later. A lot of stuff was dumped onto it. I don't even
know if I CAN sleep. I'm so tired right now, but I'm wired as well. I
feel rather sick to my stomach from stress.
I'm so goddamned tired.
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Hmm.., I may have lucked out a bit. Looks like most if not all of those old Fanzines and such? I see a lot of them on the floor. I think they just got dumped because the animals just wanted the milk lugs themselves for carrying the DVDs and PS2.
I'm severely annoyed that the PS2, games and DVDs are taken of course. But I can REPLACE those. And if my inventory of stuff I'm cleaning up matches my initial guess, I may not have lost those old fanzines after all. They're here. just kinda... buried in the kibble.
If ALL I've lost is the PS2 and related stuff and an old stereo I didn't even care about I'll count myself lucky.
HA! There's a joke that'll be on them. They found something even I had forgotten about. Old checkbooks from a bank account that no longer exists. Sorry guys! No money in those accou....
Wait... I may file a report after all! If they try and USE those old checks, it might help track them down!
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By "milk lugs" you mean crates like these?
All of those DVDs & games are easy money for a certain criminal type. When you do tell the cops, they might not have to look to hard as they'll be probably known to 'em and some what local.
Yah those checks are going to be an instant case of bad karma for 'em if they attempt to cash them in for instant cash. If you've got insurance you're definitely going to need to report it before you try to claim on it.
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Damn
10-28-2010, 01:26 PM
Damn,
Sorry to hear about the robbery; it is easily one of the more stressful things that can happen. I know the feeling. You should contact the Police though; if only so you can say you did when notifiying insurance, etc. Also, if they have checks, etc, it may be a good opportunity for them to nab the criminals.
Cheers,
Shayne
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Sorry to hear about it man.
I was going to suggest you call the cops anyway, since they might be at least able to get the Toe-rag's fingerprints off of stuff before you disturbed it. At the very least, it's one extra crime to attribute to them if they ever do get caught. And like the other's said... report the chequebooks at least. They'll get a nice surprise if they try to use them.
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Rod H Wrote:By "milk lugs" you mean crates like these? Yeah that's it exactly. Except mine were the real deal from back in my college days. I erm... 'liberated' a few of them from the back dock of a local Kroger about 20 years ago.
... What? I was a starving college student and I was moving from place to place a lot in those days. I needed a way to just pick up and go, quick. I guess I could've gotten rid of them and gotten real shelves. But they're like a comfortable pair of old sneakers. *shrug* Did I mention I was poor? (Ok, and lazy. And I noticed them, and they were just -sitting- there, looking lonely... and now I've lost a few of them. 'snif' )
As to the "certain criminal type" I think my dad may have the right idea. The bastards may have been looking for drugs. Too bad for them I've never touched anything like that. No really. Never. The closest I've ever gotten was eating some "marijuana brownies" back in the day at a party. All that did was make me hungrier later. (I just never could fathom the whole "let's inhale toxic burning acrid smoke into our lungs and alter our perceptions - for FUN!" thing. I mean - WHAT?)
Oh. And the windowpane in question is only about 6-8 inches across. Might be fairly easy to replace. The locks might be expensive though. Guess I'll have to see.
Oh, and thanks, guys.
(Heh. Toe-rag. I must remember that.)
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Keep us posted. I'd love it if they were stupid enough to try and use the old check books. That's almost Darwin Award level of stupidity.
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Damn. I know exactly how you feel, Logan -- back before we bought our house, we were robbed twice and lost a lot of stuff with both monetary and sentimental value each time. Fortunately we had renters' insurance so we didn't take a total loss, but the feeling of numbness and violation when you discover what's happened... that's one of the worst feelings in the world.
Good luck with putting everything back together and with the cops...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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I can't do anything to help, but you have my deepest sympathy. Also, do report it to the cops, both for insurance reasons and also you might get lucky. Especially if they try to use those old chequebooks. If nothing else, it'd make you less misearable having someone else to vent to.
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People who've graduated to breaking into homes to steal things aren't going to stop at just one place. They've hit other places.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
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Indeed. I had one girlfriend whose place got hit shortly after I started dating her. Her Dad (she lived with her folks still) thought it was me, but he wound up eating his words when the thieves were caught in the act hitting up another house about a month later - turns out they'd hit about twenty-some-odd houses over the span of their career.
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my sympathies logan, getting robbed sucks.
as others have mentioned, filing a police report may suck but it's worth it.
Also, inform your neighbors/people on your block. It will help raise awareness and chances are they may hit someone else in your general vicinity.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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Likewise, mine as well.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
HoagieOfDoom
Unregistered
That blows the big one, Logan. Here's hoping the creeps get caught.
On the off chance it might help, try trolling CraigsList for the PS2, games and DVDs. Keep an eye out for any bulk offers of games/DVDs at absurdly low prices. The PS2 might be harder since they're cheap nowadays. Who knows, maybe you can find your stuff that way.
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Another likely place is if there are any independent or 'small chain' game shops in the area, something besides Gamestop, that also makes a certain amount of their profit on resold games and electronics.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
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My brother is coming over later. Apparently he can (and will) replace the locks on my doors. (I didn't know he knew how to do that. But he's a in the business of house and home modification so I guess it makes sense he'd know something about this. Oh, and he says he can replace the window pane too.
Going to ask him about physical security systems when he gets here. Maybe he's got a suggestion about securing that window a little more.
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Best security is a decent Dog. For one thing, a Dog can also provide companionship, and scare off a potential burglar far better than an alarm. Even an alert yappy terrier dog will discourage a burglar, who might not want to take the risk that the owner is at home with the dog, or that an enthusiastically barking dog might attract attention from the neighbours.
Far better than an alarm, because dogs go off before the burglar enters your house.
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Not to disparage your brother -- or you -- but replacing door locks is almost literally child's play. No, seriously. Next time you're by a hardware store or Home Depot equivalent, go in and look at their lock kits. They come with instructions and oftentimes tools to do the job. It's dead easy.
A little home improvement done with your own hands will do wonders to ease your nerves about all this, believe me.
As for securing the window, the only good method to stop window-based breakins -- short of getting a dog, as noted -- is to put bars on the window that are too close together for anybody except Reed Richards to squeeze through. Those should be mounted by a pro, or at least an experienced DIYer, because they need to be mounted in studs, and properly, to have any purpose. I have seen improperly-mounted bars dangling comically by one corner and the window behind them gaping open.
Bar kits often lower the 'street appeal' of a house, and if you rent they're probably out of the question anyway (if you rent, check with your landlord immediately, as you'll need to make sure he has a key to those new locks), so they're not an optimal solution. But they'll stop burglars cold at the windows, and if your doors are the only other point of entry and they're secured well, you're as safe as you can get.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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If you're not renting, and want a security option for windows and such that doesn't look as bad as bars and such, I'd recommend trying these guys.
http://www.crimsafe.com/
I don't know if they have any distributors near you or not, obviously, or what kind of budget you'd have to work with, but I've worked with their products for over six years know, and I can confirm that they work pretty damn well.
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I dont want to be that guy, but id also like to point out that you probably need to report it to avoid getting in trouble *yourself* aside from any any insurance issues.
Failure to report a crime, etc.
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Goddamn bastards hit me AGAIN!! SAME damn window, and this time they got my vinyl records. Fucking shit was in some cases IRREPLACEABLE. We're talking vinyl versions of Symponic Suite Yamato and the Yamato movie soundtracks for god's sake! I even had a vinyl of Tomito's the planets, Kitaro's Queen Millenia, even the soundtrack to Osama Tezuka's Phoenix 2778!! Jesus Christ just thinking about it makes me want to scream and cry and utter frustration. I would SERIOUSLY KILL THOSE GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKERS WITH MY BARE HANDS IF I EVER CAUGHT THEM AND GLADLY DO THE PRISON TIME TO REMOVE SUCH PIECES OF HUMAN FILTH FROM THE FUCKING GENEPOOL!!!! I AM DEAD FUCKING SERIOUS.
And ONLY NOW do I get a FUCKING notice from the townhome association saying "there have been numerous robberies in the area where people have had their homes broken into when they are away, etc. etc.
MORONS!! NOW you tell us?
FUCK.
Somewhere during the last 10 years I've been staying there, this area has been going really downhill. It was nice when I moved in. But I recently talked to a friend who also knows the area who said, "dude, didn't you know? That place is known as "little Mexico" these days!" Frankly I really -didn't- notice. I tend to go to and from my house and not interact much with the neighbors. (Yes, I know you'll say "maybe I should have" but the whole idle chit chat with the next door guy thing just has never been my style.)
So that's it. I've been moving out since last night. I'm not staying there one more night. Cancelling service with the electricity, the water, the internet, fuck all of it. I've just spent the all last day and into the morning clearing every last goddamn personal thing out of there. It's triage at this point. I've been getting the most personal and important stuff out first. NOT giving these bastards a THIRD shot.
Moving over to my dad's house. He's got a spare room and we're storing some of my stuff in the airplane hanger until we decide whether I'm going to be staying there permanently or not.
I'll have my computer over at dad's, and he was thinking of getting the full cable package anyway. So we'll probably soon have that. But for awhile, my time online is going to be somewhat limited. Not sure if this will be a couple of weeks or what. (I'll feel safer about hanging out with friends in N. Dallas if I'm at dad's, that's for sure, and I'll have steady access when I'm there.)
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Oh dude... Hall nah! (o_0)
Definitely report it this time. Collectibles like that don't usually go unnoticed. And if you somehow manage to get your swag back, I would love to come over and have a listen to those vinyls. I'm old enough that I still have fond memories of my mom playing her favorite vinyls.
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You might want to troll eBay for suspiciously familiar albums or collections recently put up for sale. If the crooks know what they got -- and they probably do, having come back to take the vinyl -- they may attempt to find a collector or other high-powered buyer themselves rather than try to fence the discs to someone who hasn't a clue what they're worth.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Also, letting the cops know those are among the items stolen would probably narrow their search pattern considerably. Vinyls are strange and unusual fenced items. There's probably not a big number of places they might try to sell them off, so it'd be a lot easier for the cops to begin looking for your stuff.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
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