It was mildly strange that the back door was unlocked and even more that the door to the kitchen was. Kate will sometimes leave the porch door open while locking the kitchen door so someone can get to the porch but not in the house. Both doors were unlocked when I got home yesterday. When I came into the kitchen I could see through the house to the front door and it was wide open with Molly sitting on the front porch looking out the screen door. I called for Kate knowing that she wasn’t off work yet but what other explanations could there be?
The window on the front door was plexi-glass and broken out of its frame. All of the drawers to all of our dressers, desks, and cabinets were opened and ransacked. There were clothes all over the floor in both bedrooms, a broken lamp in the living room, and the door to the upstairs and other closets were all open. Someone had broken in to our house and gone through everything. I looked to see what was missing. TV still there, iPod sitting on my desk, DVDs still in the pulled out drawer, jewelry dumped on the dresser but still there. The only thing missing was the change on my dresser inside a Boris Yeltsin (he was a democratic president so he could be trusted with the change, or so I thought) nesting doll I bought in Kiev. Somebody broke our door, ransacked our house and made off with less then $10 worth of pennies, nickels, and quarters.
I went next door to talk to Ronnie to see if he saw anything. “Are you kidding me, if I saw someone in your house they would still be there on the floor.” We went across the street to talk to the gnomes and junior had seen someone. Black hoodie, white gloves. Over and over junior told us about the sweatshirt and the gloves. His brother started to get mad at him for not doing something earlier and I have to admit that was my first reaction as well. But I didn’t say anything and as junior described the guy for the 30th time I realized he was trying to atone in the only way he knew how. My neighbors took it personally. It was not their house but they felt like it happened on their watch. Ron interrogated the other neighbors and junior waited for the police to tell them about the black sweatshirt and white gloves.
The police officer arrived and got the description from junior. He looked at the door and asked if anything was missing. Just the change. He came inside and said “Wow, Nice floors” and asked if we wanted the place dusted for prints. No sense in it if junior’s black hoodie, white gloves guy was the one. Not much he could do and we knew that. He thanked us for moving into the neighborhood, encouraged us that it was getting better and better and to stick with it, and then went on his way.
I wanted to fight someone, I pictured bats hitting legs and fists hitting faces but knew that solved nothing. The person that did this was looking for fast cash for a quick score. Most likely a drug addict that needed a fix now. Why leave the iPod or other stuff and only take the change? The person that did this is exactly the person I want to reach out to, to pray for, to offer a better life. The person that did this is part of the reason we moved to this neighborhood. Jesus give me your heart for this person. Jesus let me see this person as you see them. Jesus bless them.
Kate and I set about moving on and that meant cleaning. We went into the bedroom and saw all of Kate’s clothes spread around the room. “They got in my F*&%ing underwear!” I don’t think I have ever heard my wife drop an F-bomb but it was warranted. It didn’t seem out of place. Kate washed every stitch of clothing she had and I cleaned the kitchen. Kate cleaned the bathroom and made dinner and cleaned the dining room and living room. When you feel violated you have to clean. There is a film on your house and you need to scrub it off. That’s the way it feels anyway, truth be told there is a film on you and scrubbing every thing else seems to be the best way to deal with it.
Ron and Suzie came over with our alley neighbor’s Mike and Moses. Ron wanted to talk some more, to apologize for letting us down. He wanted to look in our eyes and find the forgiveness that he couldn’t convince himself of. Mike brought a jar of coins collected from the people in the neighborhood when they heard what happened to us. Sometimes “we care” or “you matter to us” or “you are not alone here” sounds an awful lot like coins clinking on the side of a jar.
It’s not the loss of property that hurts, it’s the loss of peace. Lord grant us your peace
Lead me Oh lead me into your arms
I will be safe in the shadow of your wing
Lead me Oh lead me into your arms
I will be safe in Almighty.
The window on the front door was plexi-glass and broken out of its frame. All of the drawers to all of our dressers, desks, and cabinets were opened and ransacked. There were clothes all over the floor in both bedrooms, a broken lamp in the living room, and the door to the upstairs and other closets were all open. Someone had broken in to our house and gone through everything. I looked to see what was missing. TV still there, iPod sitting on my desk, DVDs still in the pulled out drawer, jewelry dumped on the dresser but still there. The only thing missing was the change on my dresser inside a Boris Yeltsin (he was a democratic president so he could be trusted with the change, or so I thought) nesting doll I bought in Kiev. Somebody broke our door, ransacked our house and made off with less then $10 worth of pennies, nickels, and quarters.
I went next door to talk to Ronnie to see if he saw anything. “Are you kidding me, if I saw someone in your house they would still be there on the floor.” We went across the street to talk to the gnomes and junior had seen someone. Black hoodie, white gloves. Over and over junior told us about the sweatshirt and the gloves. His brother started to get mad at him for not doing something earlier and I have to admit that was my first reaction as well. But I didn’t say anything and as junior described the guy for the 30th time I realized he was trying to atone in the only way he knew how. My neighbors took it personally. It was not their house but they felt like it happened on their watch. Ron interrogated the other neighbors and junior waited for the police to tell them about the black sweatshirt and white gloves.
The police officer arrived and got the description from junior. He looked at the door and asked if anything was missing. Just the change. He came inside and said “Wow, Nice floors” and asked if we wanted the place dusted for prints. No sense in it if junior’s black hoodie, white gloves guy was the one. Not much he could do and we knew that. He thanked us for moving into the neighborhood, encouraged us that it was getting better and better and to stick with it, and then went on his way.
I wanted to fight someone, I pictured bats hitting legs and fists hitting faces but knew that solved nothing. The person that did this was looking for fast cash for a quick score. Most likely a drug addict that needed a fix now. Why leave the iPod or other stuff and only take the change? The person that did this is exactly the person I want to reach out to, to pray for, to offer a better life. The person that did this is part of the reason we moved to this neighborhood. Jesus give me your heart for this person. Jesus let me see this person as you see them. Jesus bless them.
Kate and I set about moving on and that meant cleaning. We went into the bedroom and saw all of Kate’s clothes spread around the room. “They got in my F*&%ing underwear!” I don’t think I have ever heard my wife drop an F-bomb but it was warranted. It didn’t seem out of place. Kate washed every stitch of clothing she had and I cleaned the kitchen. Kate cleaned the bathroom and made dinner and cleaned the dining room and living room. When you feel violated you have to clean. There is a film on your house and you need to scrub it off. That’s the way it feels anyway, truth be told there is a film on you and scrubbing every thing else seems to be the best way to deal with it.
Ron and Suzie came over with our alley neighbor’s Mike and Moses. Ron wanted to talk some more, to apologize for letting us down. He wanted to look in our eyes and find the forgiveness that he couldn’t convince himself of. Mike brought a jar of coins collected from the people in the neighborhood when they heard what happened to us. Sometimes “we care” or “you matter to us” or “you are not alone here” sounds an awful lot like coins clinking on the side of a jar.
It’s not the loss of property that hurts, it’s the loss of peace. Lord grant us your peace
Lead me Oh lead me into your arms
I will be safe in the shadow of your wing
Lead me Oh lead me into your arms
I will be safe in Almighty.
7 comments:
I'm so sorry that happened to you. They probably won't come back because you are so poor. They probably thought "Oh rich people remodeling old house equals money." Boy where they wrong! Or else they looked in at those floors and said "Wow with floors like that they must have money!"
I bet your neighbors will watch more closely from now on, and not just your house.
Oh, that's aweful!!!
Bummer JR.
Same thing happened to my family when I was a kid. They turned the place upside-down, but only took coins - all my Kennedy silver dollars that the "tooth fairy" had left under my pillow over the years. Double suck!
They never came back though.
They knew better.
When my apartment was broken into a few years ago, they were making off with all of my DVDs, my laptop, a bunch of CDs...and a 12-pack of Bud Light. Straight out of my refrigerator, the thieves had loaded a box of beer into their already overstuffed bags. Did that weigh them down? Is that why I caught them? We'll never know. But it IS why I offered them a cold one on their way out.
That sucks bro. It happened to me about 12 years ago. It might take a little while, but you'll eventually feel comfortable in your home again.
You're a good man with a good heart. The only reaching out that I would want to do is with both hands around the guys neck.
Hang in there.
I dont know if you have heard, but I am wicked with the BB gun and I am packing the heat when I come there in Jan/Feb. Sucks is right, sucks for them.
I decided randomly to check and see what is going on with ol' Kate and James, and read about the break in. Good post James.
Hang in there.
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