Well, technically you might call it a burglary. Since I was in the house at the time it felt more like a home invasion though.
Here’s how it went down. At the conclusion of a typical day, I shut off the lights around 10 p.m. and headed upstairs to bed. As has become their custom I allowed the dogs to accompany me. At around 2:30 a.m. I awoke to the sound of Lucky emitting a solitary bark. In my sleepy daze, I thought that odd. I noticed Buddy was laying over by the patio door and seemed to be looking outside. Lucky was beside me on the bed but his ears were perked up and his attention was elsewhere. I decided to see what was going on downstairs.
Buddy followed me out of the bedroom but instead of bounding down the stairs as he normally does, he went halfway, then poked his head through the railing and sniffed. Now I knew something was up. When I reached the bottom I looked over to my desk and immediately noticed my laptop computer was missing. I looked in the living room and discovered the sliding door to the patio was halfway open.
I turned on the lights and began to do a damage assessment. Laptop gone, but the plug and mouse were still there. My phone was missing from the desk too. Then I noticed the shopping bag containing my new hiking shoes and socks I purchased yesterday was gone. Finally, my backup phone had been stolen as well.
Damn. I guess I’ve been lucky maybe, but this was the first time I’d ever experienced anything like this. I got dressed and walked over to the guard station at the entrance to the subdivision and reported the crime. They came back to the house and shined their flashlights around the yard, but of course, the perpetrator was long gone.
I remained sleepless the remainder of the morning and didn’t have the internet or Facebook to keep me company. So I stewed in the realization of just how foolishly complacent I had been regarding home security. First of all, my house is not protected by a high wall like most of the homes in this subdivision. That makes me a target as a path of least resistance. And those sliding glass doors even when locked are easily opened. I’d done so myself one night after forgetting my key. Letting the dogs stay with me upstairs behind closed doors was also foolish and at some level, I knew that was the case. If they’d been downstairs they would have been barking like crazy, waking me up and likely scaring off the thieves (I’m assuming more than one because someone alone would have a hard time carrying everything).
So yeah, I have to accept the blame for not remembering where I am and for making myself such an easy target. Today I had some workmen out to make those sliding doors much harder to get open. The dogs will be sleeping downstairs henceforth the better to keep watch on things. And the guards will be keeping a closer eye on my house, at least for the time being.
And life goes on. I bought a new phone ($300), a new laptop ($500), and a new pair of hiking shoes ($100) today. Experience is a bitch sometimes, but a great facilitator of learning. I’ll be more careful and aware of the risks moving forward, that’s for sure. I also know that things could have gone much worse. If I had been downstairs a few minutes sooner I may have encountered the intruders. They might very well have been armed. A knife to the chest would have ruined more than my day I reckon.
I much prefer being bored.
