Invasion

Rather than post a long comment over on their blog, I thought I'd post something here in response to the Leap Day post by Canada Calling.

On Monday, 2 October 2000, P called me at work to tell me that someone had broken into our home. We'd hired a friend, A, to let our dog out mid-day. She had walked into the kitchen via the side door and, knowing how neat we are, knew something was wrong. There was food on the counter and there were bags on the floor. She called P- from our phone - and P told her to get out of the house. We raced home and met A, as well as the police.

We didn't have a security system and - don't you know it - for the first time ever I had left a first floor, back of the house, bedroom window open. There were half-full duffel bags - ours - open on the floor. Clearly A had interrupted them and they fled the same way they had entered. I say "they" because I am sure that someone was playing lookout while other(s) packed.

Our insurance claim was for about $10,000. A lot for us. We both lost diamonds that had belonged to grandparents. I lost one grandmother's wedding ring, another grandmother's charm bracelet, my own charm bracelet from high school, class rings, and a baby necklace that I'm wearing in a photo taken when I was about a year old. We lost all kinds of other jewelry. Fortunately we were wearing our custom made bands at the time. And, my baby bracelet got stuck in the seam of the box and was still there, alone.

They didn't get to the family silver or my 35 mm. They didn't get the brand new TV/VCR. But, they got lots. And, they went threw our closets. Stuff was strewn all over our bed.

In addition to the jewelry, we lost the obvious - CD player, CDs, stereo receiver. We also lost clothing, a leather jacket, shampoo out of the shower, a hairbrush, a 500 count bottle of ibuprofen, food out of the fridge, a bag of Halloween candy... And, our luggage. They had to pack in something. They even lifted the tray of flatware right out of the kitchen drawer.

But, here's the weird thing. We had hundred of dollars of unopened baby clothing, toys, blankets, etc. that could easily have been returned to Target, etc. They didn't take one single thing that was baby-related. Some might say they were guys who didn't realize how much that stuff costs. I've always thought that a woman was involved - they did take women's clothing, hairbrush, etc. - and that that was where she drew the line. No baby stuff.

We had to chuckle - we had to - because we don't keep alcohol on hand, no cigarettes, no drugs, no weapons. They took a pizza out of the freezer and left it on the counter. It was vegan. We were glad that, once they realized we were GLBT - hard not to figure that out with a huge "March on Washington" poster hanging - they hadn't vandalized us just for fun.

Our dog was crated and they gave him a few Frosty Paws and dumped a small bag of biscuits in his crate. The cat was probably hiding. We were grateful they didn't harm our pets or let the dog out to run.

Between being obsessively detail oriented and really organized I had every little detail for the police report, claim, etc. We had been grocery shopping the day before and I even knew that they took a block of cheddar! But, even with all the jewelry detail and serial numbers, we never recovered a thing.

This was actually one of the events that put me on the road to being pretty anti-consumption or "it's just stuff." I had to be glad that our pets weren't harmed, that A wasn't harmed, that the house hadn't been trashed. Although I still wish I hadn't lost the family stuff, I can't take it with me. Right? Going to Mississippi after Katrina and clearing someone's house of everything she owned, and leaving almost all of it for the trash collector, was another pivotal event. It's just stuff.

Now, we have a security system, but we joke that there's nothing left to take. Of course that's not entirely true. But, it is true that we have no more grandparents' jewelry. Anything we have of value - that is capable of being replaced - can be replaced with a trip to Best Buy.

Let me note - I'm not writing this to say that such an event is a non-event. It's huge. Trust me - going to bed knowing that they had been rifling through the closet that afternoon was just, well, yuk. I thought I'd post this to let CC know that at least one other in our blog community knows what it's like. And it sucks.

In meeting with our builder I mentioned that I wanted double hung windows; the kinds with the little "locks" so that you can open the windows from the top. Small community or not, I don't think I'll ever sleep alone with a window open from the bottom. I haven't since I lived in Boston and experienced a break-in. Everything leaves its mark. Time marches on, but not with the windows open.