It can happen to you

Here are some things that I learned over our Thanksgiving holiday after our house was broken into and burglarized:

-Write down and store in a safe place all the serial numbers to your major electronic items. (They can track down anything sold to a pawn shop and find who sold it and who bought it)

-Don't trust anyone who is not a friend or family member in your house.

-Don't give anyone a key to your house (i.e. maid services)

-Pay the extra money for a better security system.  What is the point of paying monthly if people still know how to get around it. 

-Know your neighbors.

-Make a recording of a loud dog barking and have it play randomly while gone for long periods of time.

-If people call your house and hang up repeatedly over a period of time get a caller id or dial star 69 and write down the number.

-Don't leave out suitcases for burglars to put all your things in and steal even easier.

-If you think something is suspicious or out of the ordinary trust your instincts and let someone know.  Who cares if the cops think  you're annoying for reporting suspicious activity.  

-Take pictures of every room in your house, and your important belongings and keep in a safe place for insurance purposes.

-Keep EVERY receipt of your purchases.

Since moving here I've been scared to death of someone breaking in.  Luckily we weren't home, they waited until we were gone, but it's still terrifying.  I've never really thought it couldn't happen to me, yet I didn't do all the things my instincts were telling me to do to protect us. Most of the things that were taken were just things.  I really don't care about the things that can be replaced.  I will probably never get the videos back of my daughter being born and growing up. I tried for weeks to transfer the videos to my computer and onto a disk, but it wasn't compatible with my computer, and I just never had the time.  I will probably never really feel safe and happy in this home again.  Who knows how long it will be until I can forget what it was like to walk into my house and see what happened. Who knows how long it will be until I am not angry at these people for taking away my peace of mind and my sense of security.    I suggest you think about what you should do to protect yourself and things that are most important to you.  I hope that my experience  may help someone else in the future.