Like you, I'm a renter, and since the burglary (1987) I've been unwilling to live lower than the second floor in any apartment building, or to live anywhere but the street side, or to rent a house in the city rather than an apartment. Call it PTSD.

Glad the TL Kid came over, and so sorry about the Flip camcorder--I remember how excited you were when you got it.

I had dog fur and blood to clean up, which really wasn't a bad result all things considered.

A second set of times I was repeatably attacked by the same gang. I even had pictures of them, and the police did nothing. They will have no enforcement problem if the enforcement is politically motivated, and certainly no excess regard for civil rights, but doing their job....

One excuse I got was that each time the gang attacked it was different crimes, breaking into the house, wielding a gun, breaking into the shed, each went to a different department and group of people.

And there were so many crimes that even getting the same criminal suspect committing the same crime in different weeks might not show up as the previous week was long gone! well duh!

I guess I don't worry as much as I should since we haven't locked a door in 25 yeas.  We assume that two huge dogs would discourage most burglars and we do have insurance.  But mostly it's just laziness. Back when we had keys the kids were always locking themselves out of the house so we just gave up.  It's worked for us, so far.  

Jeralyn, first I was surprised that you rent, rather than own, and then I was shocked that you don't have insurance.  What's up with that?!  That's like adding insult to injury.  You've been violated and now you have to pay for it!  No fair!  

My first thought, though, was that they took your stuff b/c they really wanted the files in the laptop.  Even though I'm probably 1000 percent wrong (if your neighbors got hit, too, that tells me I am), that we live in a world where reasonable suspicion of the government includes the expectation they will try to get at a lawyer's confidences is itself a sad commentary.

My family was burgled when I was a kid.  We were away at a Christmas program at my Junior High, and the neighbor noticed that our front door was open.  They got away with one of our televisions and a fair amount of my mother's jewelry, and had some other things - a microwave and television, I think - stacked by the front door ready to go.  The neighbor called the police, and since it looked like the burglars were going to come back, a cop spent the evening hiding under our dining room table.  The burglars didn't come back, though - spooked, maybe - so the cop got a stiff neck for nothing.  

Mom got some of her jewelry back when they pawned them at a local pawn shop, including her St. Hubert's Bambis class ring.  I can guarantee that she was the only Bambi within 200 miles of our small town at the time.  

I had my wallet stolen a couple of years ago, too.  There was no loss to me, in the end, but the folks who stole it charged loads of money shopping online on my cards.  Some merchants were happy to stop the orders before they went out, but others (hello Wal-Mart.com!) said that they couldn't since I didn't have the order number.  The police detective assigned to that stuff was awful; he never called me back.  In the end, I faxed him a whole folio documenting who/what/when/where had used my credit card illegally to order goods online, with five separate addresses in town and specific documentation as to what actual things were ordered, including package tracking information, and they did absolutely nothing.  

I found that so frustrating.  If you are stupid enough to use a stolen credit card to order stuff online and have it shipped to your house, you really ought to be caught.  

Meh.  Maybe it's the police in my town.  Some time before I bought my house, I was living in a downstairs apartment.  The kids upstairs - literally, kids, 18 and 19, with a 2 year old - were really loud.  No biggie.  I ignored it.  

One night in the middle of the night, I woke up to a really loud sound at 3 in the morning.  I'd just gotten to sleep, and was exhausted and figured it was nothing.  The next morning, I discovered a hole in the ceiling of my living room, and found a bullet in the carpet.  I called the police.  I showed the officer the bullet and the hole, which could only have come from the apartment above.  

She went back outside, stood in the little courtyard, and yelled up at the kids, asking them if they had a gun.  The girl said she would never have guns in the house, because she had a baby.  The officer... did nothing else.  She didn't ask if she could look in the apartment, nothing.  She just wrote it down, and left.

one reason we live on top of a steep hill, with a steep driveway, is to make it even less inviting for someone to consider robbing us. granted, it's a pain in the butt when it snows (we park down on the street then), but we've never had anyone even attempt it in 22 years.

I'm still very grateful for all that they didn't take. And that they didn't trash the house. They were pretty precise.

After racking my brain for a few seconds; was it possible I left it someplace else? I knew it was stolen.

My lifelong opposition to the death penalty evaporated in a nano second on that beautiful warm Sunday. I didn't merely want the perpetrators to receive a lethal injection; I wanted them BEATEN to death, exhumed, and then given the needle. (no alcohol swab, either!)

Good thing you were able to get the windows fixed before this lovely snow we're getting today started to fall.  Otherwise you'd have a cold and wet house!  

I feel very lucky my personal space has never been invaded that way.

I would get insurance now.  

I did get renters insurance today but going through the limits and exclusions made me remember why I stopped renewing it in past years. I'm not sure it's really worthwhile, but I'm doing it.

I haven't seen any news or tv and may not be back to blogging till next week. My heart is just not in it right now.

Or how I didnt find out until a full year later, while I was moving out, that they'd taken my old VCR, yet left my DVD player.  I guess they werent into anything post 1989.

Your reaction to, as well as your ill-preparedness (lack of insurance) for this robbery shows a great deal of naivete about criminals and their real effects on their victims.

Your continued sympathy for criminals is thus explained.

But I am sorry you had to feel such pain first hand.