house got broken into

[kamari]

I moved this past Friday; to my surprise though I had a nice going away gift: a break-in thursday while I was at work. The house was completely ransacked. The good thing is that not much was taken. The crazy thing is that the alarm was set the entire time and was never tripped. The burglar broke a window out (we don't have motion detectors or shatter detection) and climbed in and out of it. Since he didn't open any windows or doors he never tripped the sensors.

My strobes were dumped out of their box, all of the stuff i'd packed for the move was basically unpacked, my roommate's door was kicked in. Every single thing in the house had been gone thru. The verdict: 3 autographed footballs were taken. Not the wallet that was in plain sight, the electronics, no DVDs, watch, NOTHING but the footballs. Luckily I'd been keeping my laptop and camera/lenses in my car. Stupid I know but i'm hardly ever home and so I've been keepin em with me so keep from having to run home every time i'm out and need them, plus our parking lot at work is very secure.

I figured it was just a kid who was looking for either cash or jewelry to grab and get back out of the house but ended up finding neither and just settled for a few autographed balls. I had taken all of my clothes and shoes out of the house the day before. What upsets me the most is that in the middle of my room lay two large butcher knives that he grabbed from the kitchen before he made his way upstairs. I'm just glad nobody was in the house.

I'm thinking someone saw me loading the car wednesday night with clothes & figured they'd come by thurs & check out what was left in the house. We've got a few kids down the block who are always sitting outside who look like they have nothing better to do...if you know what I mean. I hate to think that way but the chain of events just seem too coincidental with the timing of me moving. Then my neighbor tells me that this guy knocks on her door thurs morning talkin about he's passing out flyers. She told him to just leave it at the door. When she got to it, it was something about a fitness program that he was promoting, but it had no contact info on it. It just talked about this nutrition program and what he's gonna do to help you lose weight and tone up. She thought it was very strange, and we put 2 & 2 together that he was probably casing houses to see who was home and if someone answered, well, he had to have a backup. That's the part that throws the idea about the kids down the street and the whole timing coincidence thing out the window. She was the only one of my neighbors who received the "flyer" and coincidentally she was the only one of my neighbors who was home. No flyers on ANY other houses that i know of on my block.

He broke thru the back gate and then the back window. The way our house sits, it's like the perfect place for someone to take their time to break thru the back fence. He would have been totally unseen by anyone passing by, which makes our place probably prime real estate for a break-in now that I think about it.

Another theory I have is: why would someone go thru the hassle of breaking into a house in which they KNOW has the alarm on to only end up stealing footballs??? A couple of kids in the area know that I'm related to a NFL player, and they glorify it, but I doubt they knew I had balls autographed by him at the house. *sigh* this is SO frustrating. Forensics came out and dusted for prints, but found very little. I'm thinkin what he did lift were my own prints.

Someone somewhere has an Eagles commerative ball signed by Brian Dawkins & two balls signed by Mike Vick. If they try to sell one of em to ya...you know where they probably got it from

[Daniel Bates]

Dude, that sucks... I'm glad the thief didn't steal anything else, though.

[Thorpeland]

I would keep an eye on Craigslist. Do some searches to see if anyone is trying to sell those exact footballs in upcoming days.

That sucks though. At least you didn't lose too much else.

[David_3]

Sorry to hear about this. I really hate thieves, but at least it appears you were hit by a dumb thief. I'm sure the footballs mean a lot to you, but thankfully that's all they took. Things like this are tough to get over, but hopefully your move to a new house will help you forget it soon.

Even a small loss sucks, but those crooks are the real losers!

[SaSha]

WTF! Hang in there...don't let it get to you.

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by kamari

The crazy thing is that the alarm was set the entire time and was never tripped. The burglar broke a window out (we don't have motion detectors or shatter detection) and climbed in and out of it. Since he didn't open any windows or doors he never tripped the sensors.

Do you see a basic design flaw in your system?

[Rson]

Check your accounts and flag the credit cards.

ID theft is more lucrative than stealing your stuff now a days. There are many instances where people were robbed and nothing was stolen (so they thought) and end of month the accounts were over drawn and cc maxed out. Then they got the credit card bills from the new credit cards that the thief applied for.

Might be a good time for: http://www.identityguard.com/?mktp=yahoossp or that guy who gives out his SSN...I can't remember the name.

[Daniel Bates]

That would be Lifelock.

[kamari]

Originally Posted by Howard Barlow

Do you see a basic design flaw in your system?

not necessarily a design flaw, more like a lack of options with the package we chose. like a lot of people we opted out of the motion sensor because there's 4 of us there. i had neighbors who would trip their alarm more often than you go to walmart because someone gets up in the middle of the night to go potty or t get something to drink.

unfortunately things are always more clear in hindsight, and i'm sure many many other homeowners are in the same boat with just having door/window sensors and not having the motion detector. this was one lesson learned that fortunately didnt cost any monetary damages aside from the window and a bedroom door kicked in.

[Rson]

May I recommend this alarm for your next house.

[ggeen]

Have your neighbor contact the police and hand over the flier. If she has not handled them too much there might be a finger print lead. It is a long shot but if there is a lead...

Anyway, I know it sux. Been there done that. I guess it was about time for you to move anyway. -G

[kamari]

Originally Posted by ggeen

Have your neighbor contact the police and hand over the flier. If she has not handled them too much there might be a finger print lead. It is a long shot but if there is a lead...

Anyway, I know it sux. Been there done that. I guess it was about time for you to move anyway. -G

forensics wouldnt dust the flyer because "it wasnt somethin from in your house so we cant use that as evidence." with the look on my face as though someone had just said to me "monday doesnt come after sunday," in my best logical format, i said "well if the prints from this paper match prints in the house then we've got a good d@mn case and this would come a lot closer to ruling out "coincidental" fingerprints that may be found in my house.

[David_3]

Originally Posted by Rson

.............or that guy who gives out his SSN...I can't remember the name.

That would be the guy who had his ID stolen.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200805172662

[SCone]

The only real solution to ID Theft is restoration. Monitoring, and such is good, but the real concern is fixing the problem when it happens to you.

Hackers stole some 40 million accounts just recently by wi-fi.