I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!Someone broke into the neighbor's house while I was taking DH to the airport early this evening. I guess they had been going door to door to see who was home and broke in when they found an empty house. They stood out in this neighborhood which is mostly full of doctors, nurses, and other professional families. You don't see a lot of shaved heads (except on the retired marine) and tattoos (except on the retired marine) around here that aren't of the delicate ankle flower variety.
Of course they had aroused suspicion and we all knew the neighbors were out at the lake today (our thriving neighborhood watch gets told of most absences) so when someone saw them go into the backyard they called the police, who were here for a couple of hours. They had three cop cars and one cop SUV with a big German Shepherd. The thieves had time to gather a lot of stuff in backpacks, but when the police arrived with their K-9 unit they dropped them and ran, so it doesn't look like the neighbors lost anything. They tracked them but we never heard whether they caught them or not.
The thieves jimmied the sliding glass door. This is one reason I don't want a sliding glass door when we buy a house. They are so easy to move off their tracks. Our neighbors out at the old house also had a sliding glass door that was jimmied by thieves so I've always been wary of them.
After the airport we had gone to the library and the grocery store, so we were gone about 1.5 hours. It was disconcerting to come back home without DH and see all that police activity. I was really glad I had locked the door when we left. I don't always when Mom is home, but I had a very strong, distinct thought that I should lock it. I am glad it is cool enough tonight that we won't need to sleep with the windows open. I am also very grateful for such a strong and active neighborhood watch and that our neighbors were safe.
Burglary Next Door
August 13th, 2013 at 03:52 am
August 13th, 2013 at 03:56 am 1376366166
August 13th, 2013 at 04:41 am 1376368887
August 13th, 2013 at 05:13 am 1376370782
I was angry and upset about the mess but worse were the demands and attitude of insurance claims agents. Fortunately we had photos of events which incidentally captured stuff in the background. We had invoices as they'd been stapled to the manuals/pamphlets stored for easy reference in a binder.
Thanks to a police security seminar I'd attended, we'd removed all valuables from the M Bedrm. The perpetrators didn't notice the smallish home style safe which was bolted from the inside to the floor and wall in the closet. They missed the coin collection 'booklets' which were in the kiddies toy bin.
August 13th, 2013 at 03:25 pm 1376407512
All is not Mayberry no matter where you live. I lock the exterior doors without fail, and when my teens are home alone, the interior garage door gets deadbolted too. Upstairs windows are prevented from open with a frame stopping latch. Boo
August 13th, 2013 at 04:37 pm 1376411876
August 15th, 2013 at 04:44 am 1376541858