Crooks took our stuff

Last Wednesday evening, my wife and I returned home from the store, made a quick dinner, and went into the front room to eat and watch The Daily Show with John Stewart at about 8:30 PM. It was on TiVo, so it lasted all of 23 minutes, and 3 times during dinner one of us got up and walked across the house back to the kitchen to get something else.

After dinner, while I did dishes, my wife went into our bedroom, which is next to the kitchen and called out to me, “Was someone in our house today?”

I went into the bedroom, and she pointed to her open jewelry box, which was opened and in disarray. A quick look and we saw that most of her good jewelry was missing. This was odd!

We discussed when this could have happened, I assuming it was sometime during the day, she believing that it had to JUST happen while we were eating dinner. I had a hard time believing that someone would have entered our well lit house, with its signs of alarm systems on every window and door, and warnings of video surveillance and cameras all about. But she was sure she did not see this problem earlier in the day.

Then I noticed that my wallet, which I put on my nightstand after we got back from the store, was also missing. Then my wife noticed that he purse, which she placed next to the bed when we returned, was missing too. A quick look through the bed room and closet and we discovered a few other things missing, including a expensive LED flashlight from my nightstand, her camera, and more jewelry from the closet. And this thief was obviously careful to sift through and take only the good pieces of jewelry, leaving cheap gold hoops and silver rings aside for the good gold stuff.

Ok, now I was freaked out. As I said, our house has automated lights and is well lit. We have an alarm system and every window and door has a sticker on it saying so. Of course, we JUST got home and had not yet turned it on, so it did not help! And I have cameras that record motion at the front and side doors, but obviously I need one at the back sliding door now too, which seems how he (or they) got into the house, we think. We are still not sure, as we believe the doors and windows were locked.

Seems they came in, ducked into the bedroom, hid in the closet every time we walked by, and ducked out when we went to finish watching the TV show. Later that evening, I also noticed that he (or they) also rummaged through my office and my wife’s office, quite carefully I might add, and while nothing was missing, items were moved. (We may yet find things missing.) They then exited via the back door, politely leaving my LED flashlight at the door for me to find two days later.

We called the police fairly soon, now about 9:15 PM. By 11:30 PM, they had not arrived at our house. We had to call again next morning to get someone to come to the house and file a report, because our insurance company requires it.

Ah, insurance company… Now it gets interesting. We have a policy that covers our house and belongings. But guess what, unless you buy a special policy for jewelry, they only cover about $2000 worth, and one piece I bought my wife for a 10th anniversary was now worth more than that to replace (who would have known!), so it is not covered. That sucks! But wait, it gets better’¦

They took my wallet and my wife’s purse. In her purse were a house key and her car keys. Obviously, with a key missing, we wanted to re-key our house, which costs about $150. THAT is not covered by insurance. If they come back, insurance will cover the loss again, but not the $150 to re-key the house to prevent it. Also in her purse was her key to her farily new Turbo-VW. Since this car is often parked outside, now the thief can simply come by and steal her car at any time. So, we asked for insurance to pay to re-key her car as well. Nope, not covered! If the car is stolen, they will pay the $22,000 or more to replace the car, but not the $1000 to prevent that from happening. From my point of view, our lost hous ekey cost me $150 to replace. They say no! As for the car key, damned if I will pay $1000 to re-key it, so the insurance company can just buy us a new car when it gets stolen.

So we have submitted our list of items to the insurance adjuster, with pictures and receipts where appropriate, and were told that even though we have ‘replacement’ value insurance, they are going to depreciate the amount they pay on items that were taken, because they can. Hmmm, and exactly how is that replacement value? I hate insurance companies!

So, for the last three to four days, my wife and I are trying to put things back to “normal.” It was odd for both of us to look wallet and purse at the same time. I could not go to work the next day, I had no cash, no Visa card, no ATM card, and my BART train ticket was also in my wallet. What a royal pain in the ass it was to get all that back. I spent Wednesday evening calling all the card companies, the bank, and other places for replacement cards.

However, kudos to FirstUSA bank for sending by FedEx a replacement set of credit cards which arrived on Friday morning, basically 1 day later since they were ordered on Thursday morning. MOST impressive for a bank or a credit card company. Bank of America also did a rather good job of getting us our ATM cards by Saturday morning. American Express, the one that advertises on TV that you’re your covered, told me 9 to 12 working days to get new cards, as did AT&T for a replacement card as well. (Suffice it to say, I will become a past customer of both!)

And in the most amazing miracle of all, we had to go to the CaDMV (California department of motor vehicles, for those who do not know) to get our drivers licenses renewed, and went through the process in less than 15 minutes. I am still stunned by that, as like the post office, DMV employees are usually the slowest people on earth. What a surprise to see this office work well.

The hardest part of all of this is the fact that someone entered our house WHILE WE WERE THERE to steal our stuff. We consider ourselves lucky that we did not see him, her or them, it could have been much worse. I also cannot help but think about all the people who keep telling me to keep a gun in the house to protect ourselves. How would this have helped? Since I would not be ‘packing’ it while watching TV, and since it would probably be kept in the bed room as well, not only would it have not proven useful here, but had the thief or thieves found it first, could have actually used it against my wife and I as well, making matters MUCH worse. For the record, I use to own a gun a long time ago (I was 26 I believe); a thief broke in, stole it, and then used it to kill my roommate at his girlfriend’s house, which is another very long story. But suffice it to say, I will not have another any time soon, and am damn glad I did not have one this time as well given that the bedroom was where the thief was “working.”

Strange how a small thing like this can make one paranoid now. Now we set the alarm when we get home and double-check all doors and windows constantly. Personally, I do not like being ‘afraid’ that this bold person may return, and hate even more feeling like a prisoner in my own home. I will be adding more cameras (thank you X10) however, and lstening to the noises in my house a bit more carefully now as well.