Here's the story so far. I have a second house that I am slowly working on that is unoccupied and used to be my previous residence. But it has the appearances of someone possibly living there, such as indoor and outdoor lights including security lights that turn on when approached, a mowed and picked up yard with a locked fence around it, even a camera security system. It is nearby, so even when I'm not working on it, I will drive by and check it from time to time.
I was having the yard mowed last Sunday, and went over there to unlock the gate and walk the property, and noticed the back door had been pried open which was no easy feat, since the door locked solidly into the jamb with 6 inch screws going into the bolt plates and studs, so they destroyed the door and door jamb just to get in. After looking at all the damage and marks on the door and jamb, it looked like they spent a good 5 or 10 minutes just getting inside, when all the idiot had to do was break a small window, and reach in and unlock the door. And the moron smashed the back motion light to smithereens, hitting it at least 4 or 5 times, when all they had to do was reach up and flip the button to turn it off.
When I entered the house, I figured they would have stolen all the construction materials I had inside, like paint, plaster, carpet tiles, that sort of thing. And I wisely did not keep any of my paint sprayers or compressors or other tools there, for now obvious reasons. I poked around inside, and the only things I can figure out they have stolen is an ancient, cheap, 8 camera DVR security system, including an equally ancient square 17" LCD monitor I salvaged from the top of a trash pile one day, all the power supply stuff to the DVR and cameras and the digital converter box for another ancient 32 inch tube TV in the same room. And they didn't even get the remote for the DVR system, either. But still, it's got a password on it, to boot. Literally and figuratively.
So I decided to poke around outside again, and noticed that one of the cameras was missing that was easy to get to by stepping on an air conditioner unit, and it happened to be the one broken camera, LOL! So take that stupid thief. At any rate, I called the cops and filed a report.
When I first talked to some neighbors on Sunday, they said they hadn't seen anything, but guess what? When I stopped by tonight, someone else who overheard what happened had, and then they gave a rough description of the vehicle and when they saw it last, and it was of course a dark van, and we all can guess what might happen in a van down by the river, or in this case, a whole lake.
At any rate, while I was at the store earlier, I got a text from a neighbor I didn't notice until I got home about 3 hours later. They said there was a dark van (probably the same one) parked outside my house about an hour after I left it tonight... and they got a complete license number. As I came home from the store, I drove by the house again and considered stopping and getting out, but it still looked secure from the front and I had groceries, so I drove on home.
When I discovered the message it shook me up a bit to realize that I could have stopped and possibly been ambushed by these thieves.
My first thought was going over to the other place with my gun for protection and making sure the place was still secure, but since it was dark and nearly midnight by this time, I decided if there was going to be a shootout with robbers, probably a cop would be a good idea for some protection.
When the cop got there he ran the tag, and got a positive match for a dark colored van. When we walked the property, the house looked to be secure still, and since the back door was now boarded up from the inside with 3/4" plywood and screws, it should be. As we walked around, he said he liked the property a lot, and started asking me a lot of questions about it, including what I would take for it. I was a bit startled, to say the least, and at this point, I would probably just dump it to him cheaper, just because we need more cops living out here.
The reason why I posted this was kind of a PSA and to vent a little bit, since I now need to remove everything from the house just to keep incredibly stupid thieves from taking it all. And the fact is, that house looks pretty much just like it did when I was living in it, including keeping the kitchen light on all night long. What bugs me the most is, they could have broken into the house not knowing if anyone was there or not at the time, which would have been a fatal mistake to said house breaker, and possibly myself. That is the unsettling part. And the fact the crook is still stalking my house over a week later after the break in, is rattling my nerves and making me leery of even going over there and working inside now, especially by myself, and certainly not at night unless I am armed. This is why we have guns people, and why they are legal.
If the perps are found or I sell him my property, which his interest in was certainly unexpected, I will update this topic.
I was having the yard mowed last Sunday, and went over there to unlock the gate and walk the property, and noticed the back door had been pried open which was no easy feat, since the door locked solidly into the jamb with 6 inch screws going into the bolt plates and studs, so they destroyed the door and door jamb just to get in. After looking at all the damage and marks on the door and jamb, it looked like they spent a good 5 or 10 minutes just getting inside, when all the idiot had to do was break a small window, and reach in and unlock the door. And the moron smashed the back motion light to smithereens, hitting it at least 4 or 5 times, when all they had to do was reach up and flip the button to turn it off.
When I entered the house, I figured they would have stolen all the construction materials I had inside, like paint, plaster, carpet tiles, that sort of thing. And I wisely did not keep any of my paint sprayers or compressors or other tools there, for now obvious reasons. I poked around inside, and the only things I can figure out they have stolen is an ancient, cheap, 8 camera DVR security system, including an equally ancient square 17" LCD monitor I salvaged from the top of a trash pile one day, all the power supply stuff to the DVR and cameras and the digital converter box for another ancient 32 inch tube TV in the same room. And they didn't even get the remote for the DVR system, either. But still, it's got a password on it, to boot. Literally and figuratively.
So I decided to poke around outside again, and noticed that one of the cameras was missing that was easy to get to by stepping on an air conditioner unit, and it happened to be the one broken camera, LOL! So take that stupid thief. At any rate, I called the cops and filed a report.
When I first talked to some neighbors on Sunday, they said they hadn't seen anything, but guess what? When I stopped by tonight, someone else who overheard what happened had, and then they gave a rough description of the vehicle and when they saw it last, and it was of course a dark van, and we all can guess what might happen in a van down by the river, or in this case, a whole lake.
At any rate, while I was at the store earlier, I got a text from a neighbor I didn't notice until I got home about 3 hours later. They said there was a dark van (probably the same one) parked outside my house about an hour after I left it tonight... and they got a complete license number. As I came home from the store, I drove by the house again and considered stopping and getting out, but it still looked secure from the front and I had groceries, so I drove on home.
When I discovered the message it shook me up a bit to realize that I could have stopped and possibly been ambushed by these thieves.
My first thought was going over to the other place with my gun for protection and making sure the place was still secure, but since it was dark and nearly midnight by this time, I decided if there was going to be a shootout with robbers, probably a cop would be a good idea for some protection.
When the cop got there he ran the tag, and got a positive match for a dark colored van. When we walked the property, the house looked to be secure still, and since the back door was now boarded up from the inside with 3/4" plywood and screws, it should be. As we walked around, he said he liked the property a lot, and started asking me a lot of questions about it, including what I would take for it. I was a bit startled, to say the least, and at this point, I would probably just dump it to him cheaper, just because we need more cops living out here.
The reason why I posted this was kind of a PSA and to vent a little bit, since I now need to remove everything from the house just to keep incredibly stupid thieves from taking it all. And the fact is, that house looks pretty much just like it did when I was living in it, including keeping the kitchen light on all night long. What bugs me the most is, they could have broken into the house not knowing if anyone was there or not at the time, which would have been a fatal mistake to said house breaker, and possibly myself. That is the unsettling part. And the fact the crook is still stalking my house over a week later after the break in, is rattling my nerves and making me leery of even going over there and working inside now, especially by myself, and certainly not at night unless I am armed. This is why we have guns people, and why they are legal.
If the perps are found or I sell him my property, which his interest in was certainly unexpected, I will update this topic.
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