What a... what the... this is bizarre.
Aug. 19th, 2008 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It was Alex's bedtime. Michael and I got her into pajamas and brushed her teeth. Then Michael went downstairs and I read stories. Alex jumped out of bed to turn out the light all by herself. I reached down to turn on her lullabye CD.
The CD player wasn't there.
Ludicrously, I looked under the bed and even under a baby blanket lying on the floor, as if somehow a portable CD player could get up and walk. I called for Michael. He looked at the blank place on the floor and agreed that, yes, the CD player was gone.
As soon as I could detach from Alex I walked through the house. Nothing seemed out of place in our bedroom, the living room, the dining room, the kitchen. Michael checked the third floor and the basement. Nothing unusual. Our computers were untouched. The TV, DVD player, TiVO box, VCR, living room CD player, and all our CDs were intact. On my desk in the dining room, under some papers, my checkbook and my iPod lay undisturbed. In the bedroom, Michael's ceramic jar of coins was untouched. Several bottles of very expensive whisky remained prominently displayed in the corner cabinet of the dining room.
And yet, we were clearly the victims of a burglary. There is no other explanation.
Michael said that when he'd come home from work the door had been unlocked. (Since nothing seemed out of place, it slipped his mind until the CD player was missing; he's still not totally sure that he didn't just turn the key wrong, and unlock it without realizing it.) I know I locked the door when I left this morning. (Locking the door while carrying my work things and Alex's nursery school things is enough of a production that it doesn't slip one's mind.) Our bedroom window was closed but unlocked - there have been a few cooler nights this week, so we've had the windows open instead of using the air conditioner.
I think what must have happened is that someone accessed our bedroom window from the second-floor balcony. Our next-door neighbor was planning to have roofers in this week; it's possible that a ladder was left unattended. I think they walked through the upstairs, grabbed the CD player, went downstairs, and left through the door. They can't have spent very much time in our house, or other things would be missing.
What a weird thing to have happen. Honestly, it hasn't even really sunk in. Michael is incredibly jumpy, going over and over the house to check things. (And I checked in the closet and wardrobe in Alex's room before I left her.) I just feel... I don't know. I mean, we must have been burgled. And yet it seems so surreal, that a $30 CD player would be taken and nothing else, that someone was here and yet the house looks normal and undisturbed.
We haven't bothered to call the police. It seems like there's no point. I e-mailed the neighbor to ask if the roofers had been here with ladders, and we'll check with our neighbors on the other side tomorrow to see if they saw or heard anything. Although I think they'd have been over here immediately, telling us, if they had.
This is so... yeesh. This is just weird.
The CD player wasn't there.
Ludicrously, I looked under the bed and even under a baby blanket lying on the floor, as if somehow a portable CD player could get up and walk. I called for Michael. He looked at the blank place on the floor and agreed that, yes, the CD player was gone.
As soon as I could detach from Alex I walked through the house. Nothing seemed out of place in our bedroom, the living room, the dining room, the kitchen. Michael checked the third floor and the basement. Nothing unusual. Our computers were untouched. The TV, DVD player, TiVO box, VCR, living room CD player, and all our CDs were intact. On my desk in the dining room, under some papers, my checkbook and my iPod lay undisturbed. In the bedroom, Michael's ceramic jar of coins was untouched. Several bottles of very expensive whisky remained prominently displayed in the corner cabinet of the dining room.
And yet, we were clearly the victims of a burglary. There is no other explanation.
Michael said that when he'd come home from work the door had been unlocked. (Since nothing seemed out of place, it slipped his mind until the CD player was missing; he's still not totally sure that he didn't just turn the key wrong, and unlock it without realizing it.) I know I locked the door when I left this morning. (Locking the door while carrying my work things and Alex's nursery school things is enough of a production that it doesn't slip one's mind.) Our bedroom window was closed but unlocked - there have been a few cooler nights this week, so we've had the windows open instead of using the air conditioner.
I think what must have happened is that someone accessed our bedroom window from the second-floor balcony. Our next-door neighbor was planning to have roofers in this week; it's possible that a ladder was left unattended. I think they walked through the upstairs, grabbed the CD player, went downstairs, and left through the door. They can't have spent very much time in our house, or other things would be missing.
What a weird thing to have happen. Honestly, it hasn't even really sunk in. Michael is incredibly jumpy, going over and over the house to check things. (And I checked in the closet and wardrobe in Alex's room before I left her.) I just feel... I don't know. I mean, we must have been burgled. And yet it seems so surreal, that a $30 CD player would be taken and nothing else, that someone was here and yet the house looks normal and undisturbed.
We haven't bothered to call the police. It seems like there's no point. I e-mailed the neighbor to ask if the roofers had been here with ladders, and we'll check with our neighbors on the other side tomorrow to see if they saw or heard anything. Although I think they'd have been over here immediately, telling us, if they had.
This is so... yeesh. This is just weird.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 12:41 pm (UTC)Here is to hoping Alex moved it someplace odd. If you find it under the bathtub or in the pantry, you know that is what happened. Much better than someone coming into the house.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-20 12:49 pm (UTC)He was just telling me the story of his sister hiding a pawn to a chess set down a plastic trumpet at age three - and she refused to admit she had done it for YEARS.
Oh, and when my kids do move something (like my wallet, once), they absolutely refuse to admit they have touched it and they can never tell me where they put it. They will even help us look for it! I prefer to believe it is a complete lack of short term memory than anything more nefarious...