The Break In

This morning I prepared a letter to send to Acres of Hope with certified copies of our homestudy. I was just thinking how this is the last "thing" we have to do, and now it is just a matter of waiting and writing checks so that we can get our referral.

As I was getting into my car I heard a voice call out "Hello". Now this was at 7 a.m. I wondered who would be in my driveway at that time of day. It turned out to be an officer with the Boone County Sheriff's department. He said that someone reported a possible B&E at my address.

I knew that I hadn't reported anything, and Lacey was up in the living room looking to see which museum to take the kids to today. I told him I didn't call and that it was unlikely that a neighbor would call. I didn't see anything missing (of course, if it was missing, I wouldn't see it, would I?) He radioed back to his dispatcher and asked what was going on. Then he asked me if I was missing my passport. I opened my car (which was parked in the garage all night) and could not find the portfolio that I kept my passport in. I told him that the vehicle was in the garage all night. We did have a mini van parked in the driveway. Somehow that vehicle was unlocked. (duh duh duuuuh)

We glanced in the vehicle and noticed that the garage door opener was gone. (duh duh duuuh) The officer radioed for a detective. The only item missing was my passport, but that had been recovered. That's how the officer knew to come to me. Now, that's service. I have something stolen and the police report it to me instead of the other way around.

At that point the detective arrived and we tried to think of things that were missing. We had two Sirius radios that were still in the car (and they would have been easy to snatch). The girls had a portable DVD player, and it was still there. Lacey looked in the Explorer for her cell phone and realized that it was tucked safely in her purse. Unfortunately, her purse was in the Explorer, "was" being the operative word. Now we were really missing some things. Lacey's driver's license, checkbook, wallet, social security card, and credit cards were all gone.

The officers advised me to call the credit card companies. I did that right away. We learned that at least two of the cards had been used between 6 and 7 a.m. Wow, these guys move quickly.

The detective dusted for prints and took the information we had on the cards being used. I'm not too worried about any charges coming my way since we notified the credit card companies early on. Lacey's cell phone is turned off (and she's wondering about getting the new iPhone now). The damage thus far is minimal, aside from the horrible feeling of being violated, and the concern that they may have our garage door opener. We're going to look into changing the code on that right away.

At one point there were four police cars in front of our house. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what was going on. They came out as soon as the officers left and we filled them it. I'm sure people will be keeping their eyes open now, but it's unlikely that they'll come back here.

In the mean time, I've been advised to close my checking account. That means I need to contact my mortgage company, employer, and numerous other online vendors to notify them of the account change. I know it could have been much worse, so I'm thankful that this was the extent of the damage. In the mean time, I'll start making phone calls.