Security - for a price

Wednesday, May 20th, I got home from work after Jason. As I pulled up behind the house I saw Jason walking around the back yard. I got out of the car and Jason came over and said "Cyndi" and the first thought I had was that he calls me "baby doll" or "hon," or something like that, but never "Cyndi." And then he said "we've been robbed" and my next thought was "by the cable company?" (Yes, seriously.) And then I realized he was listing the items that he could tell were missing: my Macbook (laptop), his ipod Touch (it's an iphone without the phone), and everything out of the jewelry box on my dresser. He was then saying how they went through all our drawers in the bedroom, but nothing else registered. It couldn't be, this couldn't happen. We have nothing, why would they break into OUR house?

And the worst news then came out of his mouth - two of our cats were missing, the two boys. They either ran outside when the robber left or the robber let them outside to keep them out of the way. (The police said this happens a lot.) They've never been outside for more than a few minutes and then I understood why Jason had been walking around the back yard. We started walking around yelling the boys' names. "Davey! Lenny!" And then we heard meowing coming from the side of the house - Lenny! He was shook up and only wanted to get inside. Jason carried him in the front door - we weren't allowed to go through the back door - this is where they came in. They had broken the back window and then let themselves in. Suprisingly there were only two pieces of glass on the floor, the rest of the window was still in tact.

I walked around outside for a moment and then followed Jason in the front door. The spot where my laptop sat was empty, the power cord and laptop bag was gone too, along with Jason's iTouch that was plugged into my laptop, charging. My heart sank, it was true. I noticed though, that they took all the DVDs and CDs out of the bag and threw them on the recliner. Weird. And then I noticed that my camera, which I got last summer, was still sitting on the couch. I looked and all our other electronics were where we left them this morning. All our DVDs and CDs were also there. Why us?

Then I walked into the bedroom. The scene made me want to start crying. All our drawers had been opened and rifled through, and all my little jewelry boxes laid open and empty on the dresser. I looked at my nightstand and all my prescription bottles were pulled out of the top drawer and lined up on top of the stand. They must have been looking for the good drugs, but I didn't have any. My large wood jewelry box that sat on top was almost completely empty with the drawer laying on the bed, dumped out. My brain stopped functioning at this point. What was missing just wasn't registering. I didn't even notice that Jason's pillow was laying near the end of the bed, without a pillow case on it.

Slowly what was missing came back to me. My gold high school class ring, my white gold college class ring, all my ruby rings - some are antiques, my grandma's 1924 high school class ring, my ruby and diamond necklace and earrings that Jason got me for Christmas, and a diamond pendant, among many other things. They also went through the drawer that had all my Brighton and Premier jewelry and took none of this, but took everything from a plastic container that held all my sterling silver jewelry. I believe they were going after everything that was gold, or at least looked like gold. They also took Jason's college ring and his watch his parents had given him.

Jason and I went outside to talk to the neighbors and look for Davey, the other missing cat. I talked to a couple of neighbors who were shocked to hear a robbery happened next door to them. They weren't home during the day and didn't hear or see anything unusual. They also hadn't seen Davey, but would keep an eye out for him. Jason went walking a couple houses down calling out Davey's name and suddenly he could hear him crying out. He finally found him under some bushes a couple houses down. He was meowing for Jason, but wouldn't come out from under the bushes, Jason had to get him out. The boys were traumatized but home safe.

The police came and took a short description of the jewelry. A crime scene investigator came and got one really good fingerprint off of one my Brighton tins. I called the insurance company and started to give them a list of everything that was stolen. We were told a detective would get with us within a week and that an insurance agent would contact us within 24 hours. (Neither of these things happened.) I called our friends that evening and told them I couldn't see us going camping with them that weekend - Memorial Day weekend. I just couldn't leave the cats and the house alone for 4 days.

The laptop was gone, along with all my tracking of bills and our checkbook. And all those pictures I've taken since last July are all gone. Thankfully the night before I had uploaded so many pictures to our shutterfly.com site. (http://jcparsons.shutterfly.com) I also burned several CD's of pictures for friends. I would be able to put all of these back onto my new laptop. I also had just uploaded everything to my ipod, which I was told I could also load back onto my new laptop. I just feel like God told me to do these things to prepare for what to come.

The next day, Jason and a friend, Pat Caudill, worked on getting the glass in the back door replaced. They found laminated glass that would basically require a jack-hammer to get through. We also called ADT and Brinks Security and decided to go with ADT. They had a much lower monthly rate ($25/month) but the installation and equipment will cost us an arm and a leg. However, we can pass this onto the next place we live, so we're not out anything. They also could install the system the next day, before we would leave for the camping trip. I was all for this and decided the camping trip was back on.

We got the security system set up and we were reassured that our three cats wouldn't set off the motion detectors. We learned all the ins and outs of the key pad and left shortly after this on our camping trip. We really felt like we'd get quite a few false alarms the first day or two, but there were none. Then Sunday night, while we were at a drive-in, ADT called - the back door alarm had gone off. They asked if we wanted the police to go to the house, and I said yes. They asked if we would meet them there, and I said no, we're 3 hours away. They said they'd call back and let us know if the police found anything. And then the movie started.

About 20 minutes later I got another call from ADT, this time it was a different operator telling me the motion detector alarm had gone off and should they call the police. Um, haven't the police already been called? They said they'd find out and call us back. Another 45 minutes later, still no call. I decided to call ADT back and they said that when the police don't find a door or window open, they don't call me back. (Then why do they say they will???)

We're not quite sure what happened, but when we got home everything was fine. We had a friend check on the house and cats a few hours before the alarms went off. We're thinking the door wasn't shut quite all the way and when a storm came through later, the wind or a pressure change caused the door to shut completely, causing the door to close all the way. The alarm goes off for 15 minutes so I'm thinking the cats were running around and caused the motion detectors to go off. We haven't had any further false alarms since then, so we're hoping this was a one-time event.

I finally got ahold of the insurance agent the following Tuesday. Within a matter of days we had the replacement money in our account. We were able to get our new laptop and itouch about a week after the items had been stolen. I ended up with a better Macbook than what I had before, and Jason got the new itouch which now has external speakers - so he doesn't have to use headphones anymore. Nothing will replace the jewelry, but I did go out and buy a new necklace to replace the three that were stolen.

The last part of this story is missing - the follow up by the police. I went to a pawn shop to start looking for my jewelry and they asked if I talked to the police. They said that the descriptions I give them about my jewelry goes into a computer. The pawn shops hold the jewelry for 15 days before they can put the jewelry out - this gives them time to check the jewelry against the descriptions in the computer. It's now 18 days after the robbery and I still haven't given a description of the jewelry to anyone. A detective stuck his business card the week after the robbery but after a week of trying to get ahold of him, I decided to call his supervisor. Two days later I finally got a phone call from both the supervisor and the detective. Of course I didn't get the message until Friday afternoon, so I'll have to call them back on Monday.

I called the jewelry store where I got the diamond pendant, Albert Jewelers, and found out that they buy estate jewelry. I told the woman about the stolen jewelry and she said that if she can get pictures and a description of the jewelry - she can give this to a man who comes to her store to buy the estate jewelry she buys. She said that he goes all over Dayton and if it's been bought at one of those stores, he would know it. So I have some hope there. Tomorrow night's project is to scan in pictures of my jewelry and add a description. (What do you think, should I post this on my blog?)

How are we doing? Good. We were angry at first, but we know God is in control and there's that verse that says "vengence is mine saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19) We've done a lot of soul searching and although there's still hurt in my heart about what happened, it's just stuff. We're safe, our kitties are safe, and our house is now very safe.

I've read a lot of scripture about God restoring and replacing what was taken, which makes me really want this to mean that our family jewelry will be returned. (But the chance is slim.) However, in the past two weeks we've received amazing things from people - gifts out of nowhere. Tickets to a Dragon's game, a friend wants me to go to the Art Ball at the Dayton Art Institute as her date (this will be another blog), Tommy Bahama items that Jason's had his eye on, and a friend, Mary Ellen Fogg, made me a pair of earrings to replace those that were stolen. This just amazes me.

Thank you to all of our friends for your amazing offers of help, generosity, gifts, support and prayers. We've felt God's arms around us through this entire ordeal because of this.

One last thing - if you have family jewelry that is not only precious to you, but to others in your family, HIDE this jewelry. Do not put it in a jewelry box on your dresser. You might as well put a big red flashing sign that says "STEAL ME" above your dresser. If it's jewelry you never wear, put it away in a fire box (that is hidden) or a safe. Also, throw out your old prescription drugs so they don't fall into the wrong hands.

(More updates coming. And that promise of the blog about Olive Hill and Jason's cabin isn't going to happen just yet. All those photos were stolen along with the laptop.)