Thursday 12 April 2012

The gentleman burglar

So, a couple days ago, we were burgled. My partner sent me an email to work and said "Do you have an idea where my wallet and my bag is?" And I thought, how weird, he always puts them in the same place.

So, they'd vanished out of the house. Nothing else was disturbed. No traces. No noises. No broken anythings.

So he cancelled all the cards and makes do with whatever cash I had at that point so he could buy food at work. Then we get a message from the police (like a postcard). He calls them - it emerges his wallet and "man bag" (containing a Molekskine notebook, pens, assorted riff-raff and his expensive super-light glasses) were found in the park behind the house and handed in to the police station.

So the coppers arrived yesterday and we had a walk around the house for some security advice (in short: keep everything locked constantly and out of sight from the windows), and I'm currently in talks with a number of tradespeople to fit some big-ass searchlights in the garden and front (sorry, Mr Fox). Intruder alerts, the works.

The weirdest thing is - and that feels utterly bizarre - is that they must have done that when I was/we were asleep in the house. And the idea of a stranger just walking into my house is one that's not quite easy to stomach. I'm the type who flies into a rage and seriously injures somebody breaking into my house.

But now, the guy (or guys) is just a ghost, a weird type of invisible/unfeelable haunting.

I'm still getting those big lights. Next time might be worse. And the letterbox gets closed up and we'll get one fixed from the outside.

Funny, also, how I've never known anybody in Germany who was burgled, but almost all of my friends in the UK have such experiences. Crazy.

In funny news (kind of), dude just sent me an image to work. He DOES know how my mind works.


And in positive news, looks like I'll be visiting a friend in Ottawa over my birthday.

2 comments:

  1. Picture is perfect!

    Completely know how you feel!
    A few years ago my husband and I had our garage broken into. So we set up some inexpensive lights and motion detection alarms. We were pretty sure it was a back neighbor *shrug*. So weeks go by and nothing, then one night the motion alarm goes crazy while we were asleep. But it wasn't the garage one, it was the one we had set up on our front porch. I didn't sleep well after that for a really long time.

    Kassandra

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  2. So sorry that happened to you guys. Getting burgled is such a freaky feeling. I had it happen to me. Several times they hit our cars, once the garage, but one time… they came inside, thru my bedroom window. All they stole was a couple bottles of alcohol, my money jar, and my dude’s electric razor (what an odd thing to steal). Nothing earth shattering. (the money jar sucked a bit) But… the feeling of someone in my house… going thru my things… stayed with me a long time. It was very VERY unsettling. I felt so invaded.

    We got the big lights and all that too. Between burglars and my… scary ppl… I sleep with a weapon under the bed now. Gawdforbbid I ever catch an … uninvited… in my house. He won’t walk out. Not if I can help it.

    Lol Mamba is a scary one. Not sorry. >:)

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