Alrighty. Where was I? Duckie and Forensics were both on their way to my house…
And they both showed up at almost the same time. The forensics lady walked in with her kit and started dusting for prints and taking pictures of everything. Duckie and I stood outside for a minute while she was in the living room, then we went in and started looking around.
Clearly, my TV was gone. There was no doubt about that. It would be hard to misplace 56” of Samsung glory. I didn’t really notice anything else missing. The cabinet doors to the tv cabinet were all open, but there hadn’t been anything much in them to begin with. My Pee Wee Herman dvds were still there. 
After forensics was done in my office, Duckie and I went in there so I could start looking in my files for serial numbers for the tv and computer. It was such a mess in there already that it was hard to be sure what had been moved and what hadn’t. I knew my BAMF camera, Samuel L, had been sitting on the desk in front of my monitor when I left that morning. Earlier, when I discovered that the computer and monitor were gone, I automatically KNEW Samuel L was, too. While Duckie and I were looking around the room, I noticed the burglars had shoved a bunch of stuff over on my desk, presumably to get the monitor off easier. I was in complete and utter SHOCK to see my camera shoved to the side with all the other clutter. THEY DIDN’T TAKE MY BABY!!! It was a Christmas miracle! In September.
I had to move some things out of the way on the floor to get to my files. When I did, I saw a small black rectangle on the floor. Again, being the crime-show-watching-fool that I am, I didn’t dare touch it. Instead, I flipped it over with the end of a piece of paper. It was the USB part of my wireless mouse and keyboard…which was normally inserted into the front of the computer. Immediately Duckie and I became all excited, knowing that they had to have touched it to pull it out of the computer! We got the forensics lady to come back in and dust it, but she didn’t seem the slightest bit convinced that she’d find anything.
Apparently she didn’t. Not there. Not on the doors, or closets, or any other place that she dusted. If she did, she didn’t say so, and we never saw her lifting any prints either….assuming we would recognize that if we saw it. She left shortly afterwards.
I had told the officer about my comings and goings that day…what time I left the house and what time I returned home. And that there was a tree-cutting truck parked behind my house that morning. And about the 3 guys that were standing around outside of it. And that I had to ask them to move when, 30 minutes later, they were still standing around doing nothing and blocking my driveway. And about the fact that I never leave Loki in his crate while I’m gone…he’s almost always outside in the back yard. I gave her a description of the truck guys as best I could, but it was pretty generic.
She got all my information and said a detective would be contacting me within the next day or two. She said “this area has been getting hit pretty hard lately. But we’re doing the best we can.” She told me my best bet was if I could find the serial numbers and hope that the burglars tried to pawn something. Then she left. Duckie and I were both pretty disappointed that they didn’t do more. I was expecting them to take MY fingerprints for comparison. And to have dusted some of the other items that had clearly been touched. And to go talk to my neighbors to see if anyone saw or heard anything. But they didn’t.
Throughout this whole time, my cell phone had been ringing off the wall. I guess Mom had the best intentions when she posted about my plight on facebook, but I was really not in any position or state of mind to be answering calls from everyone I know checking to see if I was alright. THANK YOU, all, though for your concern!
Once the police were all gone, another neighbor came over to check on me and find out what happened. I finally answered a call from my brother, Red Baron, and filled him in on what was happening. And mostly just tried to calm down. Duckie kept saying, “It’s just stuff. At least you’re ok. The house is fine. Everything else can be replaced.” I knew he was right, but I couldn’t stop crying. Mostly I was just extremely PISSED off (and like my mother, I cry when I’m mad). I was just so upset that my HOME, the one place where I feel completely comfortable, had been violated. It didn’t feel like “home” at all anymore.
Duckie and I started inspecting the back door and pretty much determined that it had been kicked in, near the doorknob. There was about a 2 foot long split in the wood on the inside frame of the door below that. He managed to get the door to stay closed with the deadbolt locked. So at least I could close the house up. When he got ready to leave, he said I could come stay at his house that night, but I wanted to go through the house more and start trying to clean up the mess. I was trying to convince myself that I would sleep there, that these fools weren’t going to run me out of my house. And I figured that, later, if I felt uncomfortable, I’d give V a call, since she lives close by, and see if I could crash at her house.
So Duckie left and I began the process of going through the house and checking to see if anything else was missing. I started in the office, mainly because I was still trying to find serial numbers. I cleared off a spot on my desk and started sorting through papers. I had my work laptop with me and luckily my internet modem was still there and functioning, so I was able to get online and let everyone know I was ok. And to distract myself from reality for a little while!
As it started getting dark outside, I started getting less and less comfortable being there. I had let Loki out and had a minor anxiety attack when I went to open the back door to let him back inside. Shortly after that, I got a text from Jen, offering me and Loki a room at her hotel. Apparently she had sent it earlier but to the wrong person. So I decided I would go ahead and do that. As I was getting a few things together to take with me, I noticed that one of my small, older digital cameras (aka the little green machine) wasn’t sitting on the shelf of my desk where it normally would be. I checked all around and couldn’t find it anywhere. That immediately made me think of my other small (and NEW) camera, Ruby, that was in one of my purses that I had just switched from. I ran into the living room and found the purse in the chair…empty. Bastards. Add two digital cameras to the list.
By this point, around 11pm, I was in almost panic mode trying to get out of the house. I grabbed my bag and Loki, got in the car, and headed to the hotel…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
