Monday, August 19, 2013

La Jour de Merde, (so far at least)

Somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 this morning the power went out.  Fortunately I have an alarm clock with a backup battery and I had set my cell phone’s alarm.

I’m also glad that I have a gas stove, or I would have been drinking cold coffee this morning.  And the water was still hot, so I was able to brush my teeth and take my shower.  Inconvenient, but not a real hardship.

It wasn’t until about noon when my day went completely topsy-turvey.  I got a voicemail from my roommate telling me he had just got home from a doctor’s appointment to find the house had been broken into.  First, and (knock on wood) hopefully last, time this has happened in the 20 years I’ve lived here.

We think that they were interrupted because all they got was my roommate’s iPad and some jewelry.  It looks like they were in the middle of going through his room when he returned home, and had no time to go through the rest of the house.  When he came in, his inside bedroom door was wide open, as were both the back doors (I have an enclosed back porch).

They got in through the bathroom window, which I had left wide open.  I usually do this (but no longer will) because it opens up into the enclosed porch.  I also left the porch door unlocked, though I did lock the house door.  Now, the weird thing here is that they had to take out the screen to get in the bathroom window, and the screen is nowhere to be found.  They stole that also.

I told my roommate to go ahead and call the police, went down to the office to tell them what happened and headed right home.  A police officer came and then a CSU person showed up.

This part was actually quite interesting.  With a homicide they may tape off the entire crime scene, but in this case she let me follow her around, watch, ask questions and learn.  I had to stay out of her pictures, but got to watch her pull a shoe print off the bathtub.  You can see the footprint tape in the light spot of the picture if you look hard (and click on it to make it bigger).

I would have gotten better pictures, but I brought my good camera to school (thank God) and had only my cell phone camera for pictures.   But at least I learned that a good fingerprint is actually better than DNA, although (unlike on TV) they are hard to come by.  Most people, especially when they are moving around an unfamiliar house, don’t put their fingers down on something and pick them up without moving them a little bit, thereby smudging the print.  She told me that when she is drinking something, puts down her glass and it has a nice clean print on it, she’ll just look at it and think “Why can’t I ever get that at work?”  I also found out that brushed metal sucks for fingerprinting, glass and porcelain are the best.  Oh, and they actually do have shoe print and tire track databases,

Anyway, it was interesting, the bathroom window now has a pipe in it to keep the window from opening more than 3” and I’m going to be locking both back doors when I leave for work from now on.

Oh, and the power finally came back on around 3:15, just about 12 hours after it went out.  Which, by the way, is probably why my house got broken into today.   The CSI says that happens when power goes out, no alarms, look for an easy in and bada-bim, bada-boom.  No more easy ins here.

7 comments:

Lisa Shafer said...

OUCH!
I thought of you this morning when I heard the power was out, but the break in really sucks!
My sympathies to your roommate, but it's so good he came home in time to stop more from happening.
Also a good thing they went for electronics instead of antiques.
My sympathies. SO AWFUL!

(Yeah, unlocked doors will kill you, though. My neighborhood watch sends out e-mails, and every single crime in my area over the last year has happened because a door was left unlocked.)

Lisa Shafer said...

On a lighter note, I don't know whether the writer or the teacher side of me better liked the fact that you followed a cop around asking questions about crime solving while it was your house that was the crime scene. Most people would be too upset, but no, not a teacher. And not a writer. I would've done the same thing, so it took me a few minutes to realize that's it's actually sort of funny that you did this and then freakin' blogged about it!
This is why we're friends, Max. It took me THAT LONG to realize that what you'd done was actually sort of strange.
*sends cyber hugs* :D

Max Sartin said...

The ironic thing is that the house was completely locked up. The door that was left unlocked was to the porch, they had to access the house through the bathroom window, which would have been inaccessible if I had locked the porch door. Kind of a convoluted concept: was it the unlocked door or the open window. And where the heck did they put the screen? Anyway, windows and doors are going to be kept secure from now on.
I thought the same thing myself - shouldn't I be more upset and not walking around asking questions and joking around with the CSI person? But after breaking up a few junior high girl fights, very little phases me. And thanks for the cyber hugs!

Jo said...

Glad you are safe but sorry about the roomies goods. And may e they needed a screen for their house and yours was just too awesome. (I would have been as,inf questions as well)

Alexia said...

A horrible thing to happen, though! Someone's been in your house... freaky. Hope they track down the perps (see, I watch CSI too)

Lisa Shafer said...

I'm just picturing some guy trying to walk away from the crime scene and lose himself in the crowds of the nearby shopping areas, nonchalantly carrying... a window screen. Yeah. Because nobody would notice that or anything.

Max Sartin said...

Now, that's a hilarious image.