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| A car that has been burglarized. Bad for me, good for Wikipedia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The point of this story is that within a short time after this incident we had the smashed window fixed and most of the items not just replaced in kind, but also in additional quantity. For example where one case of cassette tapes had been stolen in the burglary it was not long before we had more tape cases filled with tapes than any burglar could easily carry off.
Some of our stolen possessions were replaced by my coworkers who had felt bad about our loss. A couple of them had gone to a pawn shop and bought us a bunch of used cassettes that they thought we might enjoy. While there they looked around to see if they could recognize anything that we had lost, but even if our stuff had been fenced to a second hand goods dealer, by the time it had we were gone from Greeley and in our next town.
Stuff comes and goes in our lives. Theft, loss, or just throwing it away dwindles our ownership of goods as we in turn keep buying more and have more given to us. Material possessions are often so ephemeral that we eventually don't even notice when they are gone. Others on the other hand are sadly missed and even mourned.
A briefcase containing a lot of my writing, including a journal that I had kept about events in my life and a notebook full of original songs, was stolen on that sad night across from the Greeley police station. We replaced most of our lost goods, but the contents of that briefcase cannot be adequately replaced. That was my biggest loss on that night.
Soon after the Greeley incident we had a car alarm installed in our van and all of our vans after that included an alarm. Still our vehicle was again broken into twice over the following six years. None of those break-ins resulted in as significant losses as that first one, but nevertheless they were a hassle. Especially having to replace the broken windows.
Taking into account all of our years on the road with a van load of personal possessions, I guess we were fortunate to not have had more incidents like the ones we had. Road life is a risk, but so is living in one place. Only once, many years ago when I lived in a dump of an apartment, has my living space been violated with break-in and theft. Crime can happen anywhere and anytime. Precautions are well advised, but never completely fail proof.
Crime against our stuff can be disconcerting, but much less so than crimes against our persons. In that respect I've been very lucky. That's a crime I'd rather never experience.
Have you ever been the victim of a break-in? If so, what was taken? What do you do to avoid being a victim of crime?
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