Ghaaa!

Sometime during the day the house was broken into, and besides stealing stuff, they trashed the house.

The cops and CSI guy suppose it was a group of kids - they took mostly jewelry and (almost) stole my son's new flatscreen TV* - and paused to eat some ice cream out of the freezer.

Also, they were too random in things they took; jewelry and the asterik TV, a couple DVD's, while leaving laptops, my computer (including my widescreen monitor), and other electronics.

The TV gets an asterick because my neighbor found it in his back yard, propped against the house behind his AC unit. The cops figure they changed their minds with all the activity in the neighborhood.

There is a huge part of me that says "set an ambush" to see who it is that comes back for the TV; however, the notion of "reasonable force" in detaining whomever it is that shows up may differ between the law and me. Honest, I was cleaning it and it went off. The ten bullet holes? Oh, it was very dirty and required repeated cleanings.



Worse than stealing stuff, they willfully trashed the house, including dumping a full trash bag onto the floor, throwing and breaking drawers, and pulling clothes out of closets and throwing them around.

No fingerprints - only glove marks, so they were prepared enough to use them.

Come to find out that the lady four houses down got the same treatment two weeks ago.....one would think that this sort of stuff would be spread around the neighborhood.

At the end of the day it's all just stuff, but it didn't belong to them and they had no right to take it.

I'm really sorry to hear that. The stealing is bad enough but the fact that these creatures took the time to wreck things too. I'm glad they didn't take your computers.

Very sorry to hear that Dart. Must have been the same pukes that broke into my house couple years ago. Same #%&*$#, take what they could carry and trash the rest...

Wouldn't you just love to catch them in the act....just for a few minutes.. Hope this doesn't happen to you, but it really freaked my wife out. Which affected everyone else in the house for along time.

I've found alarm systems don't work for these type of trash, but they can usually read. Find someone with the advertised "security" signs and place them in you yard. ...a motion sensitive pc camera's not a bad idea either.

There are alot of things worse than a thief, but not many.

Sorry to hear it Dart, but it could've been worse. I hope the trashing can be covered by insurance?

I had a man (a 48 year old idiot) break into shop#1 late 1 night using a cinder block to throw through one of the side windows. The only money I ever leave in the drawer is 30.00 in silver so he got that. He left a perfect set of prints on a piece of glass & they had a match within only a few days. This F'r was just released from prison 8 months sooner for the same charge ..maybe he wanted to go back to the pen? ..he moved here after Katrina, he's been doing this sh!t all his life! & I was expecting it to be a local teen

Sorry to hear this Dart. A few years ago someone broke into our house. We were lucky. Whoever it was let themselves in via a ground floor window (removed the screen) and helped themselves to just a few items: CD's from my late brother's collection which really upset me, my electric shaver and a video camera that was no good to anyone here in the States because it was in PAL format. They were pretty careful to cover their tracks and it was a couple of hours after getting home that we started to notice things were missing - by which time any evidence had been ruined. They even put the screen back in front of the window. Fortunately all our computers and astronomy gear was in the basement. They didn't bother going down there.

I'm sorry to hear that your place was trashed. That is far worse than what Erika and I had to deal with. Hopefully they will be caught.

I am with your way of thinking Dart, to many aimless kids wander the streets these days who
have no real home since the parents that should be teaching them right and wrong are probably
in jail or worse , off drunk or stoned somewhere.Someone must teach these kids right from wrong.
I like your way of thinking since these kids are more then likely beyond help anyways.



I make it a point to show my 11 year old going 12 tomorrow these stories, He can`t agree more.

Dart, sorry to hear that. Apart from the missing things, your home should be 'sacred' - a safe place where no-one else should come unless invited.

JimK, I agree with you about the kids wandering the streets, but also feel that nowadays it may have to do with both parents working full-time. When I got home from school, that was in the 1970s, my mother was waiting for me with tea and a biscuit; we talked and then I would go play with my friends. This seems small but I think that at the very least it also kept me from aimlessly walking the streets - and gave me a better, more stable 'foundation' when I got older and had to become more independant.

Nothing some claymores and tripwires wouldn't fix

damn straight ST they need the none lethal versions that put out a high piercing sound that drops anyone within 50 feet of it going off.

Joe Horn with rubber bullits?


Sorry, Dart. Hope most is covered by insurance.

That stinks.
Hopefully they will catch them, and whatever was lost is replaceable via insurance.

Sorry to hear that, Dart. I'll ditto Bill's response.

Dart, this story might help.

Recently in Uptown Dallas, burglars were hitting the apartments during the day, and even fixing lunch, before robbing the place.
One apartment in particular, they stole the engagement ring from a woman whose fiancee had died in Iraq. That grieved her most.

A month later, on a traffic stop, the officer saw something suspicious in the back seat, and the burglars got caught.

The woman got her ring back, too.

Might look to see if there are any security cameras nearby that might have caught them as well.

You know, they probably dumped your trash on purpose, looking for receipts, credit card bills, anything that can be used to steal your identity. Keep an eye on your credit card and bank statements.

Jeez that really sucks Dart, bloody looters

Dart, I understand. My parents had their home broken into and stuff stolen. No purposeful vadalism, but lots of things broken and upset while they looked for things to steal.

It wasn't so much the material losses, that was taken care of by insurance and some out-of-pocket expense. The real loss was the loss of security. It really affected my mother for the rest of her life. Even today she is so scared of it. And now that my Dad is dead she is even more scared. She is obsessive about locking things and not being away from home for too long.

That is the real theft. Those bastards stole much of life from my mother. I would slowly bleed them to death if I could.

I'd like to bleed the people responsible for the fact that residential burglary can often result in a year or less of county jail time.

I think it should be a five year offense, even for a first timer, even if they're slightly underage.

Double each repeat offense.

The one and only exception I'd make to that would be if someone did it ONLY for food.

Still wrong, but no five years for that one.