I started the day waking up in my hotel room in D.C. sore and achy all over. Having just one day to see sights, I had walked literally for hours and hours (about 12) in flats with no support, padding or water protection in the pouring rain, just willing myself to keep going. So getting out of bed this morning, my feet HURT and my legs HURT, and did I mention my feet HURT?
Do the checkout thing, make the drive out to Dulles, return the rental car, board cross country flight. Get into LAX, drive home. Immediately go out for dinner upon arrival since Mom and Jake are very hungry. get back from dinner, Mom packs and is out the door within minutes.
A few minutes after Mom leaves, we get a call from Mark and Jan who are in Chicago. The neighbors have called them and told them Mark's car is missing from the driveway and they want to know if maybe one of us borrowed it. We don't have it, so the awful conclusion is that it is stolen. We call the sheriff's dept and drive over to M&J's house to meet the officer when he arrives to make the stolen car report, because OnStar won't activate tracking without a police report authorization.
Jordan, Jake and I (Mark is at class) arrive at the house and go upstairs to see if the car keys are in the master bathroom where he left them after dropping M&J off at the airport a few days ago. They aren't. We notice the bed is messed up and I think we might just want to look around to make sure everything else is okay. I'm thinking that I'm so thankful that they recently had a large, hidden safe installed where Jan now keeps all her jewelry. But still, let's just look. We open the closet door...
What meets our eyes is the sight of the massive 5ft tall safe laying on the ground, entirely blocking the doorway. There is a huge hole in the wall and wood and paneling and debris everywhere, along with wires hanging out of the wall, where the whole security and alarm system was just ripped out and all the wires cut. The safe has a square hole, about 5 inches on each side right through it- through the steel and the concrete and more steel- it looks blow-torched, sawed, hacked. All the jewelry drawers are stacked on top of it and empty. Completely empty. I'm thinking of not just Jan's jewelry, but her mother's and Mark's mothers and...holy cow... the rest of the house. Horrified and saddened and trying to keep Jake from completely flipping out as I compose myself.
We check the rest of the house- TVs are gone from upstairs guest room, Mark's office downstairs, and the big one in the living room. Mark's computer equipment is gone from his desk. There is a door screen cut, the garage door looks like it was filed and jammed until it was open and then tied open with a rope.
It took almost 2 hours for the police to get there and take the report on everything. Not a fun wait. Apparently, Villa Park has been suffering from a plague, truly, of pro break-ins and thefts over the last few weeks. Dozens of them. The officer says this was obviously a professional job. The car is probably on it's way to China or in a million pieces already. The TVs...really who cares? It's plastic and wires and means nothing. But three lifetimes worth of jewelry? Stolen from a massive secreted safe hidden in a wall? That had to be an inside job. And it really freaks me out.
The alarm guy (also a family friend) recommended that someone stay here until he can get a new system in, so Mark and I are here for the night while Jordan took Jake back home to stay with him there. I don't think I will sleep much tonight. And I'm insisting on leaving all lights- indoors and out- on.
The glimmer of good news is that we heard a loud knock before getting settled upstairs, and it was the deputy informing us that they had found the Cadillac, which was miraculously untouched and just parked on a road. They will tow it to their impound yard and go over it for fingerprints.
The crime scene unit will be here tomorrow to actually investigate, so we are trying to somehow spend the night without actually touching anything. Tonight was just taking the initial report to get the case opened. Mark is flying back tomorrow so he can be here and take a better inventory of the house.
Oy vey. Off to *attempt* to sleep.
12 comments:
lol. remember when i opened the door to the closet that the safe was in? yeah, that was awesome
That was a moment I'll remember for a long time. Not happily.
oh, dear. I'm so sorry. How awful and how traumatic. But you know, I think it might have been for the best that Jan and Mark did not have to find the safe and other mess themselves. When you finally, rest, Heidi, I think you will pass out for about 24 hours. And that is more than weird that they found the car unscathed. Unless it was just used as a getaway vehicle?
I feel bad because their maid came over to H&M's house around 2:45 while I was getting ready to go get Jake and told Jordan a window was broken in his grandparents house - or at least that was what we thought she said. Jordan said he'd tell his Dad when he got home. I pictured the house as I had last seen it on Friday - overflowing with workmen redoing the kitchen, and did not know she couldn't really speak English. J&I weren't too concerned about a cracked window, and I didn't see what I could do about it anyway. I'm sorry that the discovery had to come so late at night for Heidi after a long tiring day - I was hungering for my own bed and had completely forgotten about the maid and the window. :-(
It seems that the main thing is that no one was home, which could have led to injurys or worse. That I'm thankful for. For the break in, I'm truly sorry. Thankfully, the Cad is safe and sound. Our prayers are with you all. mb
Oh.My.Gosh. I'm shocked! Shocked! That's so horrible, Heidi. :(
How utterly horrifying & unsettling!!! We are SOOO very sorry all of you are having to go through this!! I'm with you, HB, that no one was home to have been hurt or traumatized & that while "plastic things" are replaceable; not so beloved "generational jewelry" and ones sense of personal security...
Growing up, we "kids" used to laugh about Pop's homemade "booby traps", BUT retrospectively, they possibly spared us this kind of loss & emotional pain, since every house on our block was burglerized at one time or other... Remembering that, we came back more then once to find that a backyard booby trap had been tripped - perhaps by a cat, possom, or "otherwise", but nothing had happened to the house & its contents. - The only exception being the (arson) fire set beside the garage, which was done as retribution for our having been seen after we called the police when we witnessed people illictly entering the backyard of the neighbor across the alley. (I still remember "the look" that one guy gave us when being questioned by the police when he realized WE had been the ones who had reported them..)
Yes, sleep will come, HB, but likely fitfully for a time while you ALL process this all... That is how it was for me after being robbed at the Inn all those years ago. (I REFUSE to live in fear, but I DO "live alert" YET - as Scripture says "watch & pray"!)
Keep us posted, please!
My love & prayers, AuntieM
PS. HB, I remember Darcy's PAINFUL feet after having "walked DC" ALL day in unsupportive shoes while pushing a stroller.. Right now, however, they probably don't hurt nearly as much as your "heart" does...
Yep, I hear you on the foot thing. Spent 10 hours walking with Windy and Kyle in $3.00 keds from WalMart and nearly died the next day. I just had no idea!
I haven't read all the comments yet, but I meant to tell you to check the landline, if they have one. If not, check the landline that the alarm system uses to dial out. That is the most common (effective) way to defeat an alarm system. Ripping it out rarely works to do much other than stop the incessant beeping.
Checked the landline...still works.
Very sorry to hear...that is so disturbing and traumatic!
Nathan
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