Getting Robbed

I’m sure this has happened in varying degree to a lot of people, but that doesn’t mitigate its unpleasantness when you’re the victim.

Since I’m a big Ed McBain fan, it might make more sense to list it in a quasi-police procedural format.

Possible time of break and entry: 0900-1615 october 5, 2005

Possible location of entry: Back door or front door

Method of entry: Keys or lockpick or some other device that doesn’t leave visible marks of break and entry

Description: The front door was locked when my roommate came home, while the back door was unlocked. This points strongly to the back door being the means of entry, but there are no visible marks on the door at all. My storage closet was rifled through, with a few books strewn around on the floor, but it seems as if they discovered that there wasn’t much of value in it and moved on. They then went upstairs and rummaged through my drawers and dresser. They took my computer tool set and my air pistol and left the drawer on the floor. They also took the change jar, which was a converted large goldfish bowl. It had around $100 in change in it and weighed around 50 pounds. After this they entered the other bedroom on the upper level and stole an expensive digital camera.

Probable means of exit: The back door is a strong candidate, since it was unlocked. However, if they had the keys, locking the front door after leaving through it would be possible too.

Items stolen:

HP 945 digital camera

Marksman 2004 air pistol

.177 air gun pellet box

Computer screwdriver set

Change jar

25-30 DVD movies like Snatch, Princess Bride and so on..

Motion detecting webcam worth around $150

Poker set, worth around $150

Total monetary loss: ~$1500

Other factors:

One of my roommates lost his house keys a few months ago. Someone could have found and used these. This is a slim probability, but is strongly supported by the fact the perpetrators gained entry to the house without using any force.

We are being watched and staked out. Someone has been home everyday for the past few months. Today was the first time that the house was unoccupied in the day for a lengthy period. Could the robbers have been watching us? Are they cognizant of our activities and schedules on a daily basis? Or is this paranoia running away with me?

The RCMP officer who answered our call was a polite individual who examined all the doors with his flashlight and explained probable uses our stolen chattels would be put to. He was pretty confident that my air gun, being a decent replica of a real gun, would be used in a cornerstore/gas station robbery very soon. We gave him the serial number of the stolen camera and after advising us what to do if the intruders came back, he left.

He also explained that while this seemed like a typical Break and Entry in some respects, namely the hurried grabbing of small items that could be carried out and pawned and/or sold on shady streets for hard drugs, some things stood out:

The heavy goldfish jar: This is a large goldfish bowl filled with coins. It is large, unwieldy and above all HEAVY. Not your ideal “stuff it in your pocket and run” theft item.
The ignored electronics: Not one foot away from where they emptied my drawers to get the air pistol, sits my computer with its 19″ LCD monitor and 2 Compaq IPAQs, 3850s to be exact. The IPAQs are a couple of years old but will still fetch decent prices. The LCD monitor is a prime item for theft and it was left behind. I must say I’m rather fortunate in that aspect. It seems that these go like hot cakes on the street, so its truly mystifying that it was ignored.

One possible hypothesis is that they wanted to minimize the time spent in my room. My room is at the far end of the large house and is extremely dark, with the light-proof blackout fabric covering the only windows. Also, its distance from the doors makes it very hard to hear the doorbell or people coming and going. Add to this the fact they spent a few minutes in the near dark rummaging through my drawers to locate my air pistol. On top of that, their hands were probably full with the change bowl. Having found a lot of money and an air pistol, they probably decided to not press their luck and left with what they had.

It is at this point that I wish I had come home, surprising the intruder with his hands full as he descended the stairs. It would have been a sight worth seeing.

All in all, a rather nasty experience and one I hope you all avoid. I will be notified if my air pistol is used in any robberies. So all we can do is sit and wait and hope they catch the burglars, or burglar. I must confess I wish they throw the book at him/her. I’d be happy if this foul wretch was locked up for life, with no chance of ever seeing the sun, sky and stars again. I’m probably asking for a bit much, but there is no harm in hoping that this happens. Either that or some disgruntled corner store owner pulls out a real gun and radically rearranges the facial physiognomy of the robber. That would go a little bit towards making me feel better.