A year ago yesterday, the day after St. Patrick’s Day, the apartment my husband and I live in was robbed.
Talk about the luck of the Irish.
I came home from work that day, and the first thing I noticed when I walked through the door was that my dresser drawers were all open and looked like they had been rifled through.
Then I walked into the living room and everything was in a complete disarray.
An Xbox we borrowed from a friend was gone, and I soon discovered that our laptop and iPad were also taken, in addition to several of my husband’s video games.
I walked into the bedroom, and the mess was even worse. EVERYTHING, literally everything, had been rifled through. No box, draw, or item of clothing hanging in my closet was left untouched. The thieves even rifled through our photo albums.
My jewelry was strewn everywhere. I was really nervous that a pearl necklace my husband gave me for our wedding anniversary was gone. Strangely, it wasn’t. They opened the box it was in, looked at it, and left it. I had jewelry making supplies which included fake pearls, so they must have thought the necklace was fake.
However, they did steal a 14 karat tri-gold necklace and bracelet set my brother and sister-in-law gave me for my 16th birthday.
After my initial freak out, and repetitive “WHAT THE FUCK!!!!”s, I called the police. Then I called my landlord, whose apartment was also targeted.
We later found out that the thieves broke into our side window and broke down the door to get into my landlord’s apartment upstairs. That apartment was completely rifled through, and it looked like the thieves spent A LOT of time up there. They stole their camera, portable electronic devices, an expensive watch, rare coins, prescription drugs, alcohol, and more.
We learned that the robbery must have been drug related. They were looking for quick cash and portable electronics – items they could easily sell. They were also very likely on foot, since they didn’t take larger electronics and stole my husband’s backpack to carry things in.
They were also looking for drugs, and found some leftover pain killers our landlord had leftover from an injury.
The police came, took a report, and dusted for fingerprints.
I felt really scared and violated. But what was really freaky was that the thieves didn’t get through our apartment as much as they got through our landlord’s. They took the Xbox, but left our PlayStation. In fact, they began to unplug the PlayStation, but left it. They also left my digital camera out of its bag.
Eerily, a single blind was left open in the kitchen, which told me they looked out the window at one point. They barely made it to our kitchen and bathroom, as several items in those rooms were left undisturbed.
Something or someone must have interrupted them. Could it have been me, coming home from work? They left the front door unlocked, and I entered the house through the back door.
Upon realizing this, I was immediately thankful that I wasn’t home when the robbery was happening.
I was also thankful they took mostly replaceable things from us. The only things they took that I could not replace were the 14k necklace and bracelet.
It could have been so much worse.
We have renter’s insurance, so we weren’t worried about being able to replace things.
It’s just stuff.
There is an epidemic that is increasingly prevalent in our area and across the country: heroin addiction. In the last year or so, we’ve seen more robberies in our area that I now know are directly related to this epidemic.
I have had friends and family members who have struggled with addiction. So upon reflection, I felt a little sorry for the people who robbed us. What were they addicted to, or what happened in their lives to make them this desperate?
So I’ve made it a point to pray for them, hoping they find help and change their lives.
In the last year, we have increased our home security through various measures, including installing an alarm system and window bars. No one should be able to get in our home again.
Below is a Facebook post I shared after we were robbed last year. I’m proud of the way I responded to the situation. I could have been super mad and upset about the whole thing, but it made me recognize what really matters: our health, our safety, and our memories.
AND my husband’s comics, which the thieves stupidly ignored. Can’t forget those! 🙂
The thieves were never caught, and we were never able to recover our lost items.