Today I experienced my first robbery. I hate being reminded how horrible people can be. I know we live in a horrible world filled with so much negative qualities, but I try really hard to focus on the good. And days like this make it hard. I live with another family near my university and the ENTIRE house was trashed when McKenzie (the 17-year-old daughter) walked in after school. When she saw all the drawers and cabinets open in her living room and kitchen and realized everything was on the floor, she immediately left the house (quietly, in case someone was there) and drove away and called me and the rest of the family who then called the cops. Unfortunately, I was in class and my phone died soon after she called, so I was completely unaware of how bad the break in was until I got home. She wasn't entirely sure that it was even a break in when I spoke with her, so I had my hopes up when I was driving home an hour later.
But, it turned out everything of immediate value to the thieves was taken. All of our (3) laptops, and iPad, jewelry, trophies, other electronics, and weird random things I don't even understand why a thief would want. Every square inch of this house was searched and destroyed looking for valuables. The clean up is going to take a while :/ I know this will sound ridiculous, but when I was eating lunch and preparing everything to go back to school, I had a weird thought that I should grab my computer to bring to school, even though I didn't need it today on campus because I have the iPad my mom gave me for school. Like usual, I ignored my weird intuitive thoughts because I assumed they're ridiculous, and of course, I lost the computer with all my documents for my entire life: personal documents, schoolwork, music library, and worst of all, my entire photo library of over 8,000 photos from the past 10 years of life :/ I've been meaning to find something to back it up on, but I'm constantly so busy with school, and always assumed it won't happen to me if I'm cautious, but it happened anyway :/ I know it sounds materialistic of me to complain, but I REALLY would have preferred my Cadillac to be taken over that...
We are grateful that no one was home/came home when they broke it. However, cops are thinking that the thieves came probably right after I left for school around 1:00. Dalton worked on my tail light for me right when I left and then neighbors reported hearing a strange car around a time right after that. The sheriff also told us that this happened to multiple houses today within 2 miles of us, and that recently, north county San Diego has been hit with robberies really hard. They have a few details on the possible suspects and vehicles, (they assume it's a large team of people hitting multiple houses) but we won't know anything for sure until next week.
So for now, the rest of the family and I just have to take inventory of what was stolen/damaged, start the clean-up and keep an eye out for the sellers putting out things up on Craigslist, EBay, and pawn shops (although pawnshops are less likely now that they take finger prints). It still feels unreal that this happened in the home I live in and at such a severe measure.
Hopefully me sharing this will maybe help someone else not make the mistake of leaving windows/doors unlocked, not being aware or strangers lurking in the area or NOT backing up your computer or any other important files. I will DEFINTIELY take advantage of this learning opportunity...
