Last Friday, Gavin and I left our house to go to swim lessons and then headed to Cocoa to spend the day with my parents at a resort. Nick left soon after to campus to work on edits for his dissertation since it was due to his committee by Monday. Gavin and I had an awesome and fun day. He swam for hours! Then he played on the coolest jungle gym I've ever seen. He felt like such a big boy because he was able to do everything on his own without my help. He was exhausted by the end of the day and fell asleep on my mom's arms before we left.
Nick and I got home about the same time, close to 7:30pm. Both of us were tired so I asked Nick if he wanted to watch some TV and then go to bed and he was good with that plan. When he tried to turn on the TV, the cable wouldn't turn on so he opened our entertainment center and noticed that our cable box was unplugged but more importantly his Playstation 3 was GONE! It took us both a minute or so for it to sink in.....had someone broken into our house? I was just in shock. I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. It was obvious but yet my mind didn't want to believe it. I think even Nick asked "did I let someone borrow it?". Our innocent minds just couldn't bear the thought. But someone had indeed been inside our house. Then I start asking myself, what did they do? what did they see? what did they touch?
My immediate thought when we noticed they took the Playstation 3 was, "it's a teenager". I just don't see how an adult would come in and just steal a game station. Then I start thinking of other things a teenager would look for so I went into our bedroom to look at the Ipod docking station and sure enough the Ipod is gone. We walk around the house looking for anything that looks out of place and trying to remember things that we have that they could have taken. I run into the bedroom and look at my jewelry box that was next to the docking station to make sure my wedding ring and other jewelry is still there and they were all there. I felt a bit of relief! Clearly, not someone looking for just any thing of value-- they had specific things to look for and probably for personal use (our speculation). At this point, we weren't sure what to do. I didn't know if it was worth calling the police out for a PS3 and an ipod. I honestly was just thankful that our laptops were still here because it would've taken Nick and I YEARS to replace the content of it, work wise (all of our research is saved and backed up on it since both the laptops had our flash drives attached). Not to mention all the pictures that are saved on our computers/flash drives that have never been printed or uploaded to another site.
After a few minutes we decided that we should report it just to document it happening in case it happened to other neighbors or God forbid they came back which is highly unlikely since we have nothing else of value unless they came with a car and took the new TV. Nick and I figured out how they got in- no forced entry- our side garage door was unlocked and that's probably where they went in and they went out the back sliding door since the blinds were all messed up and the door was unlocked and we know that door was locked for sure when we left. So, at this point we know it has to be someone from the neighborhood because they had to know we were gone and they only took stuff you could carry easily and not look too suspicious.
While waiting for the police, we realized two more things were taken. One was my birthday present from my parents--- and although it was brand new and I was not emotionally attached to it, I did cry over that one because it was a gift for ME and that's when I felt truly violated. I was mad that someone would be taking advantage of it, when my parents meant it for ME to enjoy. I had just opened it the night before and they took everything with the box and all. I felt a bit of guilt for leaving it out in the open but who the hell thinks someone will break into their house?!?!
The other thing belongs to Nick's parents and we didn't even realize that was gone until Nick remembered it at 3am- when he couldn't sleep! So, I'm now glad we called the police and have a formal report. Chances are we will not get our stuff back because that's just the way these things go. We have leads on who it could have been and have reported them to the police. They will investigate. The police officer who came to our house took a few good fingerprints and they will run those through the system.
The strange thing about this is that when I calmed down and was sitting in the couch in just awe of what had happened, I look at Baby (the dog) and notice his paws are filthy. I asked Nick if he had taken Baby out the side door (where there's no grass and mostly just black dirt) and he said he had not. So, we start wondering how the dog's paws got so dirty?!?! We think that Baby must have run out the side door, maybe even ran to the lake area in our back yard where the ground is usually moist dirt. This means that whoever broke into the house either had the courtesy of taking Baby out or had to run after him to bring him back. As Nick said, either way they are lucky they came in now that Baby is 12 years old because 2 year old Baby would have bit their legs off if they tried to come into the house. He's pretty useless as a guard dog now! :(
It's taken a few days for us to get over it. I'm not scared to be in the house because I know they would not come back when we're here. This was a crime of opportunity, they checked the door, it was unlocked so they came in. We've learned our lesson. Although we are both very disappointed that we have to live like that. I've never locked my car in the driveway because I've always said if I have to lock my car then I need to move neighborhoods. Well, I guess it was good timing in that sense. Now any emotional ties we had to the house are gone. We both would feel worse if we knew we had to stay in this house after this incident. We hate having to think about having things locked up and being conscious of that everyday. That's not the way we want to live. Our bubble has been burst. :(
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