Cops & Robbers

A few weeks ago I called my parents to talk about planning a trip out to visit them at home in San Diego this summer. Before we got much of that decided though, mom proceeded to tell me about a little "incident" that had occurred a few days before.

When my mom came home from work, entering through the laundry room as usual, she failed to notice a chair beneath the bathroom window right next to the door. My mom is an avid
gardener, and the chair was conveniently concealed behind some of her many beautiful plants. Mom went into the kitchen, closing the laundry room door behind her, but instead of continuing down the hall to her bedroom like she normally does, she went into the backyard and puttered around her garden with our German shepherd, Sunny.



All of the sudden, Sunny started going crazy, running all around the outside of the house, down to the street, back by the laundry room, and finally stopping in between my mom and the house, refusing to move. My mom began to wonder what was going on, so she headed back to the house with Sunny in tow. As she walked around the kitchen and ventured into the other rooms, she began to see small things that were out of their usual place. Either she hadn't noticed earlier, or somehow she subconsciously ignored these changes. When she saw that the laundry room door, which she had closed, was now open, she was sure that someone had just been in the house.

He was probably down the hall near her bedroom when she came inside. For some reason, she changed from her normal routine and didn't go down there. Intuition? I think maybe it was a little something more than that.

Anyway, my mom looked around and discovered several small but expensive items missing, including her original engagement ring, some of my dad's coin collection, and a little stash of cash that my dad had been saving to buy himself a fancy mountain bike. Lots of things were left untouched though, including my dad's two laptops, his cameras, the gun case, and lots of the jewelry and coins. I wonder how much would have been gone if he hadn't been interrupted.

The thief had put a chair up to the laundry-bathroom window, which had been left open. That window is tiny! At about 2 feet wide by 1 foot tall, the guy couldn't have been very big himself. Anyway, the police found tons of good fingerprints, and hopefully they find him. How much can you do to a thief though? Fine him and send him on his way?

I hope this serves as a reminder that even though "it never happens to you," it really can. Be careful and make sure not to get too comfortable with leaving windows and doors open or unlocked. That guy is just lucky that Sunny wasn't in the house...