My house was broken into while we were at work. And I . . . it was when I . . . I actually had called . . . kept calling my house because my husband gets home before I do, and I was going to be inviting him over to my parents for dinner . . . and that's where I was at, and he picked up the phone and immediately answered, “the house has been broken into; you need to come home.”
They kicked in my back door, and they had taken our 36˝ TV that was in the living room. They took our 25˝ TV that was in our bedroom. They took just a lot of weird stuff that we kind of don't understand why they would take it, like towels out of our closet. They took, like, wash rags. There just seemed like there was so many little things that just kept coming up missing. Every day that went on, I'd find something else.
They took my camcorder, which had my youngest son's newborn video in it. That's probably the worst thing. They could care less what's on that video. They're not going to watch it. They probably just threw it away. But that's—you know, that was my baby, my newborn baby on there that—I'm never gonna get that back.
A detective, like, tried to get fingerprints on, like, the computer, cause they had messed with that. And he couldn't—we have never heard anything back. I just wanted my things back . . . you know? I mean, granted they came into my house. And I don't think it would have been . . . The greatest to get it all back, you know, or to find it. I still would have been—I think that would have probably been traumatizing, too . . . is knowing that they had them and then they got them back. You know, it's like, “what have they done with them?”
We ended up getting a security system, but there's still times when, like, if I come home by myself and I have the kids and it's dark . . . Our garage is detached from the house, and it's like I just want to grab the kids and run, and I make sure my oldest son doesn't leave the garage until I've got the baby out, and I'm just—I just almost want to run and hurry up and lock the door. Run and shut the door. I mean, I don't even set anything down until I've shut the door and locked it. I mean, that's not a good feeling, and I do that… Anytime I'm by myself, I'm always really scared.
You do . . . you feel violated. It's just like it's—like they've been in your home, and they've been through your things, and I just . . . It's not a good feeling. And that's—you know, yeah, they're there for 20 minutes to wreck your life or your sense of security for a year. It seems like such a small thing, to—you know—get burglarized. And that it wouldn't be that big of an impact, or it wouldn't really affect you since you weren't there. You weren't physically being harmed, but it—I mean, it just—mentally, it messes with you. And just not feeling safe in your own home is not good, not a good feeling at all.
