A burglar invaded both our car and house two night’s ago. He must have had a set of huge balls to pull of the intrusion!
We were a very full house.
With four visiting family members, we had at least one person sleeping on each level of the 4-storey house.
- Game room (basement) - my little brother was sleeping on a mattress on the floor.
- Living room (Level 1) - our cousin Willem was sleeping on the couch.
- Two bedrooms (Level 2) - my parents-in-law slept in one, and The Mann and I in the other.
- One bedroom (Level 3) - my sister-in-law and her husband slept on the top-most level.
The thief had only a short time frame of quiet and darkness to play with.
The summer sun and our elderly next-door neighbour rise around 5am every day, and our house activity currently dies down around 2am because my little brother games till then every night.
Items worth about €2,700 were taken.
- Two wallets filled with bank cards, loyalty cards, IDs, and at least a total of €600 hard cash
- One purse containing IDs, loyalty cards, and about €100 hard cash
- The Mann's iPad
- The Mann’s wedding ring :(
- The Mann's pair of black Nike running shoes
- Garage door remote control
- Loose change found in the car
It's higher than the statistical $2,230 average loss per break-in (this is US data, I couldn't find an average for Germany).
But, we were LUCKY!
Nobody was injured. No damage was done, because the thief had the key. And the thief’s stealing spree was stopped prematurely when he noticed our sleeping cousin on the living room couch.
We put on our detective hats and tried to recreate the unfortunate event in our minds.
Even though we had no surveillance cameras installed and no one actually saw anything during the night, we still had observations and clues that made some scenario possibilities more likely than the others.
Here’s what we could work with:
Fact #1: Our car is parked in the shadows 5m into our property beside our home.
Fact #2: The roll shutters covering our windows and back door were fully down. Thus the only way of entry would have been the main front door, which auto-locks upon closing.
Fact #3: All the items stolen from the house were taken from the kitchen counter on Level 1 (2 wallets and the iPad) and one easily accessible bathroom on Level 2 of the house (wedding ring).
Fact #4: A couple of valuable items on the kitchen counter were not taken (another wallet and two car keys).
Clue #1: A lone house key lying in front of the television, which is in front of the couch
Clue #2: At least 3 items were missing from the car, but my passport (which was also in the glove compartment, was not taken)
Clue #3: Excerpt from Cousin Willem, who had been sleeping on the couch in front of the tv:
“I heard the sound of glass shattering, but I didn’t investigate nor check my phone. I think it must have been about 2 am. In the morning, the connecting door to the kitchen was open, which I found odd. I close the door every night when I go to sleep.”
Fact #5: The sound of a key dropping on the wooden floor is similar to that of a glass shattering. We tried it out a couple times.
We will never know the exact order of events, but we have a good guess.
The thief had intentionally checked our car and noticed that it was unlocked. He took the spare change and garage door remote control, and rummaged in the glove compartment for something of value. He pounced on my purse, containing the house key. Fantastic find! He proceeded to quietly enter the home without his shoes on, for stealth.
He headed upstairs to check out possibilities first. Entering the bathroom he made the first juicy find - a fat wedding ring! He quickly snatched it up, then tip-toed down to the kitchen to gather his loot. His eyes were drawn to the beautiful curved-screen TV in the living room and he headed for it. While he was figuring out how to remove the cables and lift it, someone stirred on the couch.
Startled, he dropped the key, creating a sound like that of glass shattering. He panicked and rushed back to the kitchen, snatching as much loot as he could from the kitchen counter top. On the way out the door, he grabbed a pair of black Nike shoes to protect his bare feet. Only once he was outside did he realise that he forgot the car keys which could have made for a juicier prize. damnn
One thing we know is that he was probably after monetary gain and not identity theft, since he left my passport behind. If he had not been startled, maybe he would have left our IDs and other cards behind.
It’s not been a great place emotionally since we found out about the break-in, but we will do better.
The majority of the items lost were The Mann's, and the unfortunate event has cast quite a shadow on his normally peaceful, chill demeanour. Everyone else who was in the home at the time of the intrusion also share the feeling of loss and vulnerability. Nevertheless, we are working to move forward and learn from this experience. Much energy has already been invested into putting our life back in order as quickly as possible, cancelling credit and debit cards, making a police report, and changing the locks just in case our detective’s solution is not 100% accurate.