Friday, August 24, 2012

Breaking In

Last Saturday, I was weed eating around the old place......it has been on the market for 2 years now....when I got to the walk out basement side, I noticed the door was not completely closed. I figured maybe a realtor had shown the place and not closed it completely. I figured I just go in and check the place anyway to be safe.
As I went upstairs, the basement door from the hallway was open, which we always kept closed. I went on cautiously, hearing some beeping noise I couldn't identify....I was a bit concerned. As I made my way down the hall and into the kitchen, I realized it was the internal alarm that was beeping. As I rounded the doorway into the kitchen, I realized what the problem was.......
Someone had broken in, cut the alarm wires, turned the power to the house off and removed every kitchen appliance! They removed the new dishwasher that my father and I installed and had never been used! They removed the built in microwave/convention oven! They removed the built in ceramic cooktop! All of it was gone! I tore through the other rooms seeing if anything else was gone or damaged. I went back to the basement to check the furnace and water heater. I checked outside to see if the brand new heat pump was still there. Thankfully, those were still there! I made that dreaded call to my mother to let her know she needed to come over......
She was very upset, crying and angry. I canceled my plans for the afternoon and my date for that night. I finished up the trimming and gave a statement to the officer that came out.
It was a bit surreal. The thieves didn't damage the cabinets, the walls or anything. Just the broken window in the basement. They even moved ta TV on the bench under the window, sat it on the floor, but didn't take it. They took the electrical wiring from my father's workshop to the greenhouse and the grow lights, but left the bulbs neatly on the floor, only breaking one. And the cable from the workshop to the tractor shed. They were very professional. They figured out where the breaker box was and turned it off. They did manage to back into a big bush and leave behind a mud flap to their vehicle.

We have now put up a gate at the driveway. Since the house sits so far from the road they had plenty of time to disconnect everything and not make a mess. Now the place is well lite at night. I'm surprised after 2 years that this hasn't happened sooner. The police are checking out people who have viewed the property.  I'm sure they have been casing the place for a while and knew we aren't there all the time. I'm just glad that my mother hadn't stopped by and walk in on them. That is something new to worry about.

The total cost about $6,000 for the appliance, new gate and repairing the broken window. Overall it could have been much worse.

4 comments:

Jeffrey said...

So sorry that this affected you and your mom so! Sending good thoughts :-)

Cubby said...

Terrible news. I'm sorry to hear it.

Russ Manley said...

Oh that's so sad. I hope insurance will cover replacement.

Ur-spo said...

This feels like a rape: I am sorry.

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