On January 19, 2012, we just came back from the airport after a week of holiday inMedan,Indonesia. It was 10:20pm and we haven’t had dinner yet. That day was also my older brother’s birthday. So we thought we just drop off the bags and head out for a quick dinner.
When we arrived in front of our gate, we saw a piece of notice from a courier company saying “We’re sorry you’re not at home when we came by on Jan 14…” My dad was furious when he saw that because it clearly declared to the world that we’re not around. And the date was the day we left, so it’s been sticking there for 6 days confirming to anybody that no one is home to anyone who passed by.
The offending notice by the courier company
So we walked in and I was the one with the house key. I arrived at the front door and found that the shoe cabinet and a chair have been moved to the front door. I thought my dad put it there as an added protection/obstacle for anybody who might want to break into the house. While I was opening the door, I glanced at the window (since the last time we had a break in, they came in from the window, especially with the courier notice at the gate) saw the second window slightly ajar. I didn’t think of anything because I thought that window has always has a slight gap. When the door is opened, I saw something on the sofa (that’s facing the door), I thought “What the *toot* is that?!”. I thought it was a wall divider or something, then a few seconds later it clicked. I was our window grille. I look to my left to the window, sure enough there’s no more grille there.
The window grille that been taken off the wall and put on the floor
The house has been broken into again. This is the third time and I am not amused. I quickly ran upstairs hoping I would find the intruders still inside so I can beat the crap out of them. Seriously, I was that mad, I really could have kill someone. There’s not an ounce of fear, just a whole lot of anger. And it was the same with the rest of my family members, except for my sister in law who was very distress since this is her first time experiencing something like this.
Lucky for us, since this is this is the third time, we hardly have any valuables left. I “study” their ransacking pattern from past experiences and hide my valuables (which I don’t have much except for the laptop and quite a good amount of cash), so all my stuff are safe. But I do lose something priceless to me. It has no monetary value, but it has sentimental value.
My dressing table all messed up
They took myUSstate coins that I collected when I was studying in theUS. It’s the personalized coin from each of the states depicting their culture/lifestyle/economy. I know they produce that in staggered state by state but not sure if it’s still going on. I had about 15-20 states. They also took my “old coins” – coins from older years. Usually you can only find coins from the past 10 years or so in circulation. But throughout the years I found coins from 50s-60s, family members’ birth years and the oldest I found was 1931. They took all of it. In fact, they were so cheapskate, they took any loose change they can find – probably because they couldn’t find many valuables. It pissed me off so much because even though those things have little value but I’ve collected them for years! I would be less angry if they took my wads of cash instead of my coin collections.
They hacked my parents' bedroom door.
My parents lost a few moderately valued watches, but my mum also lost her expensive watch that was supposed to be sent for repair. There was also a camera. It was free (and inexpensive) but still, it sucks. My older brother and his wife also lost medium value watches. Good thing they we wearing the nice ones. My younger brother’s room didn’t have anything much because he’s only home on the weekend, so he didn’t lose anything.
The aftermath of my parents' closet
You see, losing things is not as upsetting as having to deal with the aftermath of their ransacking. We were tired and hungry and had to come back and see the house like it was hit by a hurricane was really annoying. But the good thing is, they didn’t make that much mess this time. The last time they took out all drawers and turn the contents on the floor, and pulled out all the clothes in the closet. I guess they know they have all the time to be more “gentle” and sort through our belonging.
Neighbors from my street came by to show their support and they stayed until the police left. Just a few minutes after that, one neighbor came back running to our house and said someone was trying to break into her house! Imagine the bravado of those thieves, trying to break in while the police are jus 3 houses away! While our neighbors left their houses to gather at ours, they try to gain from it! Such bastards!
So half of us ran to her house, I was (again) ready to hurt someone just in case the intruder was still there. But no one was there. When she came back from our house, she saw the back porch light was out, so she went back and saw the things on porch table was everywhere. She asked her maid, and the maid thought maybe it’s squirrel. But when she look up at the now malfunctioned light, she saw the wires have been cut out then only she realized that someone actually attempting to break in. We believe they were watching. They must have seen the police left, so they figure the neighbors are going back to their houses soon, so they left. I know this sounds weird, but I was hoping for a showdown. If the thief was caught in the act, they would have been beaten to half dead by the time the police came back. There were about 20 of us with a few golf clubs. It would have been ugly.
We are angry with the courier company that never used their brain of what their action could cost homeowners. My dad is going to write to them demanding explanation of their action and possibly compensation. Yes the thieves are going to break in no matter what if they want to, but having a confirmation of a vacant house is like getting a personal invitation for a break in party. And we know the police are not going to do anything much other than taking reports. There were another break in just 2 weeks before this on our street. And it won’t stop. Even CCTV and alarm never stopped them. So the next time we’re going to be out for a long time, we’re going to hire a guard.
And we’re actually supposed to go to my aunty’s house and down to Singapore 2 days after we came back. But now we just had to stay home and clean up the mess. Great…
P.S.: I’ll be more happy and cheerful in my next blog about my trip toIndonesia:p
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