Saturday, March 24, 2007

Hiding in Plain Sight -- jcarolek

My hubby and I had arrived home, a little later than usual that evening, as we had waited a few extra minutes at the babysitter’s as she was sending us home with freshly baked lasagna. So, it was dusk as I juggled the lasagna, a baby and the key, trying to unlock the front door. It took a while, but finally, the key turned in the lock and the door swung open.

Hubby, who entered first, immediately noticed things were awry.
“What the heck were you doing?” he demanded of me, when he saw the TV, stereo, etc. pulled out into the middle of the living room.

Before I had a chance to defend myself, he strode through the wrecked kitchen, where cereal was strewn about, to the back door which was wide open.
“Why did you leave the door open?” he demanded of me.

Meanwhile, protesting that of course I had not left the door open or pulled the electronics into the middle of the living room, I was looking at my wrecked bedroom. Every drawer had been tossed, the mattress and box spring tossed and the contents of the closet strewn from one end to the other. The medicine cabinet was wide open and the over the counter offerings of such interest as tooth paste, hemorrhoid crème, Tylenol and baby aspirin, occupied new space on the counter and floor of the bathroom.

“We’ve been burgled.” I told hubby.

Well, as is the norm when a crime is committed, we reported it, by calling the authorities. The house was dusted (what a mess) and we sat through hours of questions regarding what had been stolen. The funny thing was, we could not find a single thing that had actually been stolen. The police determined that the burglars were looking for two things…drugs and money.

I suppose being dirt poor and not partaking in illegal substances proved beneficial that particular day. But to me, it was always funny that the only money we had of any real value was displayed in plain view. In fact, it was framed and hanging on the wall in the dining room. It was a treasury sheet of uncut bills. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was the ONLY cash in the house!

The police also suspect we interrupted the burglars when we came home, and they bolted out the back door.

Two things I for which have remained forever grateful are that
we were not home when they broke in, for they came through my son’s bedroom window, after breaking the locked mechanism, and that
they never made it to the baby’s room closet….where every single Christmas present was wrapped and waiting for placement under the tree.

Had they burgled the house just two days later, we would likely have lost all the Christmas we could afford that year.

I learned about where burglars look from that experience. After reading healthyjerky4u’s post regarding where the burglars look, I now understand why the police recognized the burglars were looking for drugs as well as money.

So, you see, 22 years after I was burgled, I learned something about that burglary!

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