A thief in the night

We've had a busy autumn enjoying the beautiful weather, until one unfortunate Tuesday morning... a few weeks ago I was getting ready to leave for work. I went out to the garage and noticed that the side door was cracked open. Then I noticed the big garage door was open as well. There have been a couple times that something caused the door to bounce back up. We live in a very safe neighborhood so it hasn't been an issue.

As soon as I started to get in the car, I realized that my car was a disaster. Papers and 'junk' all over the place. My first thought was Steve must have been looking for something, but as I glanced over to his car I realized the same thing in his car. Then I looked up and realized our golf clubs were moved. The night before Steve had been cleaning out the garage so I assumed he moved them inside. I ran inside to ask Steve if he had left the mess in the garage... it finally hit me. We had been ROBBED.

They managed to get our golf clubs, car stereo, CDs, IPod accessories, etc. We estimate it was about $2,500 worth of stuff. We have a $1,000 insurance deductible so we're debating whether to submit a claim or not. As funny as it sounds, the thing I miss most is the mix CDs that I'd collected over the years. There's no monetary value, but countless memories attached. And what's even more frustrating than losing the stuff though is our invasion of privacy. It could be a troublesome teenager, but my fear instantly think it's some convict who's out to get us. Turns out the house across the alley and another house down the block had they house broken into, so I need to be remember how lucky we are they just got in the garage!

We filed a report with the police and they committed to send extra patrols around our area. Then Steve and I typed up a letter to our neighbors informing them of the incident so that they could take precautions and make sure to lock their doors & windows. A few neighbors responded back to Steve and were very grateful for the heads up. Now I understand the importance of a neighborhood task force!

Bottom line it's frustrating, discouraging and down right annoying. The things can be replaced, but my sleepless nights and mix CDs can't!