The One Where Candies Saved My Life

Our house got burgled. Again.

The last time this happened, two windows and a door were damaged before the door was kicked in. They had three hours to attempt to get in the house four times, and took many valuable things from us. We were not home, and I think they had been watching us to make sure.

I have a suspicion that every day since that one a year and a half ago, we have still been watched.

But this time, we were both gone separately. I had been babysitting all week, at the house where the kids live.

Tuesday night I could not sleep. Something was wrong, but I couldn't put a finger on it. I dreamed that we had popped a breaker on our house, and DH had gone out in the back yard to turn it back on.... where he encountered a large black bear. We were going to struggle, and it was going to be his struggle. I awoke on Wednesday, not liking what the day might hold. However, we had plans in the evening, so things would work out.

On my way home from the other house, DH and I were having what I now call "stoplight conversations". I will not write a text while driving. I shouldn't read them, either, but I sometimes do. So, this time, I was in busy traffic coming home. I had stayed out a little later than usual. I visited with the mom, we looked together at catalogs of jewelry for the party she is hosting soon. When I left, I thought of something that I wanted at Aldi, so I stopped there on my way. I ended up turned around, and went about 3 miles out of the way. I was still headed home in plenty of time to get ready for our date.

In our stoplight conversations, DH told me he was home. Next light, I listed my intersection location, and said I would be home soon. Another stop, I asked what he would like for dinner. After that, I read what his suggestions were for dinner out before our date. (No tacos, please.) The last light, I read the message that made my tummy do a flip. "Do you have my laptop?"

I didn't have another light to respond. I pulled into the driveway, shut off the car, locked it as I always do (without collecting my things) and went inside. DH was in a frustrated panic. His laptop, tablet and iPod nano were all missing. I started looking for how they got access.

We discovered a broken window on the opposite side of the house from the last time. The neighbor in the house next to us has been working to remove his wooden privacy fence, as he is getting it replaced this week. A trespasser would have been seen on that side of the house. This trip, they used the bushes that I have spent weeks trimming as a cover on the other side of the house. Though I have made great strides by myself on the landscaping, I had not done enough.

The thief/thieves broke a window in the "Dungeon", stepped over my stacks of stuff, and went directly to the places where these electronics were stored. They did not look at/touch/take any of my jewelry this time. This becomes very important in a moment. I promise to tell you in a bit.

We were both home by 5:30, and called the police almost immediately. Now, I try to be a reasonable person. I understand that a burglary, where the perpetrator is no longer in the home and no person got hurt, is NOT an emergency to the operator at 911. I get that. But we had plans.

I had paid a total of $86 for two cheap seats (plus taxes and convenience fees for ordering online) to see the Will Rogers Follies, put on by Lyric Theater, at the Civic Center Music Hall. 1. I knew the actors playing Betty Blake and Wiley Post. 2. I needed the laughter. 3. I had paid a LOT of money, and was GOING to be in those seats, no matter what. 4. I was totally terrified to leave anything in the house, for fear "they" would come back to get more of my stuff. I did not want to leave the house. I did not want to be in the house. I did not leave my laptop.

We both decided we were too stressed to eat. I took some cardboard and packing tape and a box knife, and proceeded to be in the hottest room in the house, hoping to "secure" the damage somewhat. We also decided that we were definitely attending the show, and must leave almost an hour before curtain. We had to drive downtown, find a place to park/pay for said parking and walk to the Civic Center from where we found our parking. Then we had to find the Will Call line in order to pick up the tickets. So we determined that we would have to leave by 6:40 for the 7:30 curtain. No officer showed up before we left. I still don't know if they ever did show up the day of the incident. It took them more than 45 minutes to get here on Thursday after work when we called again.

I don't normally wear expensive/valuable/inherited jewelry to go babysitting. I rarely wear jewelry at all, though I still have a lot of it that the first robbers never found. But on my Birthday weekend this year, my Bro and SIL came to hang out with DH and me for a day. When they came in the door, they handed me a box. In that box was a necklace that was my Mom's, that I had given SIL because I had most of the heirloom stuff, and "Mom had TWO daughters." I wanted SIL to have something. She is skin sensitive to plated and not as pure metals, so I made sure it was a 14 K Gold, and it had one large diamond in it, and was surrounded by 9 smaller diamonds. It is delicate and small, but real and beautiful. This necklace was sitting in a box out in the open, and was still there. Nothing in the master bedroom looked touched at all. I have been wearing it almost non-stop ever since. I won't let it go without a fight.

Either they were interrupted by Jeff coming home, or they are the same people who were here before and they knew that they already got the good stuff last time. I am convinced that it was the same people. (I have no other basis for this than they only took a few things, but the suspicion is strong.) Like they knew where to go and what might have been replaced. They missed the Wii that still isn't hooked up, they left the TV and the DVR and the two Blu Ray players. They left the remotes (they took every remote last time). They took a phone charger, because there were two black cords that were near the tablet, and they didn't know which belonged is what I would guess. The charger for my iPad (which was with me and not in the house) was left.

I sent a text to DH's Sis and her hubby, while they were working their church's Vacation Bible School. I asked for prayers for my heart (I have been overly angry about this), and our safety. They independently of each other offered any kind of assistance, from sleeping at their house to boarding up the window. On Saturday, the four of us spent most of the day trimming the hedges to be below the front window, so nobody can use them to hide anymore, and boarding up the window. I would like to say we are fine, but that is a dream from a few days ago. What I will say is that all they did was get away with stuff. They cannot steal what really matters. We are not harmed. We are just inconvenienced. While this will cost us more money, and probably raise our insurance costs again, we are left with more than most of the world will ever see, much less have. We are blessed beyond what we could ask for, even in this frustrating time.

I wonder a bit at the marvelous workings of our God. What if I had not been babysitting? What if I had not stayed late at the house, or not stopped at Aldi and then not gone out of the way to get home? What would DH have done if I were in Atlanta for the Thirty-One National Conference and 10 Year Anniversary, and he were home alone? What If ....

NO. Deep Breath! I could get lost in the What Ifs of danger. I must not think of it that way. I need to think of the What Ifs of protection and providence. What if I had been at home? Did they ring the doorbell to see if I were there? What if they came in anyway? I could be hurt, or dead.

There have been a rash of burglaries in the area, and one just a few weeks ago was a group of men who burst in and beat a 90 yr old woman inside her home, and stole almost everything they could pawn for drug money. She later died at the hospital. That was about 3 blocks from our house.

I was watching the Candy Kids, and I choose to believe that the children saved my life on Wednesday. No other explanation really fits.