I feel enraged and violated so much even after 6 years I havent got words for it, never feltsomething so raw and strong andbeyond hate for someone inmy life, and can’t let this go, even though I know that this hurts myself more than anyone else

When I arrived the police were still trying to talk the gleaming blade out of my good Samaritan’s hands! He was screaming at the top of his lungs “in my country I cut off their hands!”

I was robbed in my early twenties. I was living in a not so great area–and some teenager stole my purse. It all happened so quickly.

My home when I was 14 and living with my Mom was burglarized. The things they took had alot of sentimental value to me–I had a pearl and coral necklace and bracelet my grandparents had given me….

I think the burglary made me feel violated….and unsafe—-I worried about being broken into again–of course it was just me and my Mom and I was a teen…

The robbery–I just avoided the area–they probably got less than $20 out of my wallet–and cancelled the one or two credit cards I had at the time—so it was just more annoying–getting a new drivers license, etc.

will respond to each story in a few moments. thanks for sharing guys.

It also took the cops an hour to show up when the two gay guys across the street suffered a home invasion, during which one of the residents escaped out a back window and was chased up the road by a thug waving a .45 at him. That episode came to an end when the fleeing victim’s shouts brought some of the neighbors out. When the two homeowners, one of whom suffered a concussion during the attack, told the police that one of the five perps was a woman, the cops responded that the two must have picked up a prostitute and been rolled by her pimp. Guess they didn’t notice the Gay Pride flag flying out front. . . .

Then when a demented neighbor tossed three gallons of used motor oil into my swimming pool, and we proved it was him to the cops’ satisfaction, an officer told me they would not arrest the man unless–these are the officer’s words, permanently seared into my memory: “unless he kills you or puts you in the hospital.” The pool’s plaster and all the pool equipment were destroyed. Ten thousand dollars worth of damage to my property was not enough to merit an arrest.

A year later, when the same guy showed up at a bedroom window at 10:00 p.m., I called 911 and complained that a man was banging at my bedroom window. No joke: the dispatcher actually said, “Well, if he tries to get in, call us back.” Uhmmm….and why would I be calling 911 if I DIDN’T think he was trying to get in??? To the Department’s credit, they did send an officer…he showed up an hour later.

And people wonder why Americans think they should have guns?

~Raymond
Money Blue Book

I’m glad you and your sister were not hurt. That’s the important thing.

I was thinking of setting up a few cameras inside and outside of my future home along with motion detectors. Maybe some James Bond like infrared beams would also be neat. If any activity while I am not home is detected, video and notification could be sent to my cell phone. That way I could contact the police directly and not come home to a surprise I do not want.

We’re actually 99% sure about who did it, but we have no proof. And even though it was 5 years ago, it still hurts like crazy to think about.

After writing a nasty note to the mayor’s office about the incident, I had two police sergeants show up at my door this morning to talk about my complaints. I detailed the conversation on my blog. Sadly, I still haven’t had anyone follow-up on the actual CRIME that was committed.

Overall we didn’t lose that much, although one of the items was a guitar from my brother-in-law’s church mission in the Philippines that is irreplaceable. It is mainly the feeling of being violated and the knowledge that our police are completely useless.

First, the house. The house had been vacant for a bit before I bought it (REO deal…) and I was making some improvements to the house before I actually moved in. So, the evening that I had the moving truck packed up and ready to go was the evening I drove over to the house only to see the front door was WIDE open. It took a minute for me to really grasp the fact the front door to my house was wide open, and that’s when I freaked out a bit. Called the cops, waited almost an hour for them to get there and that’s when I finally went inside. They had kicked in the front door which was totally smashed apart, spray painted some of the walls, brought in a newspaper from one of my neighbor’s homes and spread it around the house, but didn’t take anything. Didn’t take any of the power tools that could have been easily sold or pawned, didn’t take any of the construction materials in the house…nothing. (Removing the busted up door and trying to replace it at 8PM on a Sunday when everything is closed sucks ass. It took forever to actually fix.)

Fast forward almost 12 months. (actually about 2 weeks short of the year anniversary of the house being broken into.) It’s fall and I’m leaving to go to work one morning. I open the back door to throw my bag in the backseat and I notice glass all over the seat. Turns out someone had smashed in one of the little windows on the driver’s side of my car to actually gain access into the car. They popped off part of the ignition, but clearly couldn’t get the car started. Oddly enough, I had probably a dozen CDs in the car they didn’t bother to take. (About 4 or 5 months after that, I had someone slash one of my tires and wedge a bowling ball under my front axle. No, I am not kidding, but I think that was the homeless dude that asked me for $11 when I was walking from my car to my house, and I wouldn’t give him anything.)

Not a single one of my neighbors has had any problems while living there, and I don’t bother anyone in the neighborhood, so apparently it’s really bad luck. I finally caved and purchased a security system though, because I felt so unsafe living there alone. It’s really, really awful to not feel safe in your own home, and there’s also a huge financial impact! The cost of replacing my front door, replacing the busted car window and the slashed tire, not to mention the ignition that had to be replaced and now the monthly cost of a security system.

The closest I’ve gotten to being robbed is when our house was broken into a year or two ago. Luckily (for me) our house is in MA and I live in CA. But it sucked for my dad and his girlfriend… and my poor cat! It was two teenagers who broke in and they had two neighborhood girls (who my dad knew really well) stand guard while they took whatever their small-minded selves could grab. That’s what really sucked… that we knew the two girls and their families. It sucked even more when they got arrested… more for them than us, heh.

The interesting part was what they all decided to steal. The biggest thing they stole was the 30″ TV from my room upstairs. Which makes sense, you can get a lot for a TV. But they took the one from UPSTAIRS. As opposed to the bigger but lighter (a flat panel) TV that was downstairs… in the living room… that’s right next to the door they broken into. Clearly they weren’t all that intelligent with their whole operation. They also stole a laptop… but only one. There were two of them, right next to each other, both of them not plugged into anything. And they stole my dad’s junky, beat-up, plastic, free laptop and left the nice, clean, fully loaded with thousands of dollars worth of software laptop (aka, mine… that I really need to take back next time I go home).
They also stole a bunch of jewelry from my room, that was all fake crappy crap (which is why it was in my room… on the other side of the country, heh).
And they stole some random crap from my dad’s room but left the really nice and expensive stuff like his manual camera and all of the glass that goes with it and his 4 digital video cameras (that he never uses anyway).
But oh, they did think enough to take the $50 Wal-Mart special, Sony CyberShot camera… cause that’s worth so much more than all those old bulky lenses.

It’s really just the ignorance of it all that gets to me. Like, if you’re gonna break into someone’s house to steal shit, at least KNOW the value of the shit in the house! And know where to look for things! We had several places in the house where expensive things (and cash) are hidden… and you know, they’re pretty common places, yet none of those places were even brushed over.

But at the end of it all, my dad and I were both grateful for the same thing… at least they didn’t steal Simba (the cat).
He did a very good job being scared shitless and hiding in the back of my dad’s closet… for 3 days. :)