So here it is...
Got home on Tuesday, the cops were already there (did I mention that Husband had called me while I was sitll at work?). The upper window in the back of my Florida room was shattered with a brick, the brick then hit a wall leaving a mark, and then went to the floor. The perp then reached in, unlatched the window, and crawled in, thereby avoiding any jagged edged pieces of class.
The Florida room (it's just a room that used to be a porch, lot's of sun...) was in disaray, but not a big deal, with the exception of the glass.
The dining room: all the books and vcr tapes were thrown to the floor, as was everything on the bookshelves. The china cabinet was opened, but my china was not disturbed. All drawers were opened with the contents strewn upon the floor.
The kitchen and nook: The TV cabinet was open with anything that was in/on it on the floor, exception the TV itself. The drawers and cabinets in the kitchen were open, nothing seemed to be missing. There was a jar of pickled eggs on the counter (don't ask, they aren't mine) and someone had opened it, taken a bite out of one, and thrown it onto the floor. Also, they'd gone into the cabinet with the olive oil and rice wine, opened both bottles and poured them onto the floor. I did not notice anything missing.
The living room: All the couch's cushions were flipped up and in disarray. The footlocker that has my deceased father's vet flag on it was opened and gone through.
The offices: Every drawer was gone through (there are dressers and filing cabinets, along with footlockers) and the contents were tossed onto the floor. The computers and TV's were not touched. One of these rooms is how entry was made last Friday. Also, the safe was pulled out of this room, dragged to the hallway (when I imagine they finally figured out it was WAY too heavy to get out of the house), so they then went through the house looking for a way to break into it. I found three hammers, a meat tenderizer, and four screw drivers that they obviously used to try and open it. It didn't work, but they did destroy the locking mechenism. (I had put things in here just after the break in on Friday... and good thing I had).
Bedrooms: same as the above. All items taken out of every drawer, shelf, closet, whatever, and tossed to the floor. Bed mattresses flipped more stuff thrown onto the beds.
What's missing? A DVD player (interesting... they didn't take the VCR's, the TV's, the stereo equipment, nor any of the computers), a digital camera (doesn't work anyway, nanny nanny boo boo), a letter opener ($1.99 at office depot), and both of our military medals. That seems to be all.
On Friday, when they cased the joint, they came through a bedroom window... I don't know if you are familiar with Miami Windows, but they crank open. It was already cracked open (because the weather has been so nice) and all they did was yank it up until the metal frame broke. We had that sealed shut, never to be opened again, on Saturday morning.
So, since they decided to come in a window on our porch, we took 1 x 1 slats and created bars over the picture windows. Still lets in light, but no body skinnier than a cat could come through them. I put a board up to block the hole on Tuesday night, but had the glass replaced today.
The detectives called on Wednesday, in the midst of the cleanup. They said they'd call around to the local pawn shops to see if they had been approached regarding the camera or the DVD player. My comment? I could have walked to either of them, found out they knew nothing, and walked home in the amount of time the phone call took. I don't expect to see any of the stuff again.
I also doubt that there will be any prosecution. It is interesting to point out that my neighbors on each side pointed to the kids living across the street, same as me. Also, when the sherrif's were there, they asked if we'd had any run in's with the kids across the street. Seems that they (county sherrifs) have been over to that house... shall we say... more than once. They've been there with guns drawn. They said that each and every "child" over the age of 10 (and there is a number of them) have been fingerprinted by the county.
Funny, too. Usually, when I get home from work, the kids are normally playing football or basketball in the street. I always have to wait for them to finish whatever play they are in, before I can pull into my driveway. Not since this happend. Not Tuesday, not yesterday, and still not today.
