I’ve Been Robbed 06-28-2005

It’s Sunday afternoon, there are clear skies with a high of 92°. A bit hot for my tastes but I’ve had a good weekend. I am looking forward to taking a shower, watching some TV, and getting some work done on the computer. Only to arrive home and discover that I was robbed.

I expected my arrival at my apartment to be no different than any other time I’ve come home after staying over at Neera’s place. This time around it began just like that–nothing seeming out of the ordinary, Moz (my cat) hanging out in the living room, some stuff moved about due to Kevin moving. It wasn’t until I walked into my bedroom that I was a little tweaked out. Some of my drawers were pulled out–meanwhile I’m thinking, “Man, if you need some stamps or something at least close the drawer.” Then I notice my PowerBook is gone. Still, at this point I have this feeling that maybe someone was using it in the living room or something.

This is the point where if this was a story being told on This American Life the music would stop and there would be a short pause, then I say:

And then I turned around–back door wide open, window screens smashed out, and there are flies everywhere. I’ve really just been robbed.

I looked into my roommates’ rooms to see if anything of theirs had been taken. Kevin’s room has always looked as if a robber came in ransacked the place, with the exception of drawers pulled out. Steve’s room looked pretty much intact except for the aforementioned pulling out of the drawers.

With shock and disbelief firmly setting in I call Kevin, who by the way is about to have a graduation party, to see if he has his laptop. Unfortunately he was a victim of the smash and grab as well.

What They Took

After filing reports with the police it is apparent that we’ll never know who stole our stuff and we probably will never see it again. What is worse is that I keep discovering more stuff that they stole. Provided below is a list of my items that were stolen:

  • PowerBook G4
  • iPod
  • Canon Digital Camera
  • An older Mobile Phone (formerly Neera’s)

Things to Take Away from this Experience

Things could have been much worse. For one, they could have stolen a lot more. But what really freaks me out is the possibility of being home when someone invades your property.

While this is a horrible experience for me, it is a wake up call. We’re hyper-vigilant about locking this apartment down, but even that won’t always prevent the worst from happening. What this violation has taught me is that if you rent an apartment you should get renter’s insurance. This was always on the back of my mind–never did it, now I’m paying for it. Back up your data to an external hard drive, dvd, anything that is not physically attached to the computer. Luckily I did this. The financial loss of my property is far less than if I were to lose my data. If anyone else has some tips I would love to hear them.

Writing this article was tough, cause it only makes me more angry thinking about it. But on a funny side note (meaning it could have been worse), a few hours after the whole ordeal, I realized that Moz was covered in dirt. He’s an indoor cat mind you. Apparently he ventured outside for awhile, I guess he doesn’t think my apartment is that bad of a place to live.