Burgled? A narrative.
So tonight I get home, fully 12 hours since I had left this morning, exhausted and starving. I unlock my door, kick off my shoes, and flip on the lights, completely prepared to throw on some sweat pants, microwave some dinner, and zone out in front of the tv until I fall asleep.
As I start to walk into my living room, I notice that something is amiss. It takes me a second to realize what it was that was wrong, but finally I figure it out: my keyboard and mouse and much of my mail is on the floor, my computer is pulled away from the wall, and all my desk drawers are open. I stand there a moment shaking, and am not quite sure if I'm imagining it, and if not, what it is I need to do. So I call my mom and tell her that someone's been in my apartment, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.
She tells me to call the police, and I do, and then realize that the rest of my apartment is a mess, with dirty underwear and dishes are strewn about, and in this case only I'm to blame. However, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to clean it up, or not touch anything. I figure that they're most likely not going to be dusting for fingerprints, so I opt for sparing the poor police officers and cleaning up at least the most embarrassing bits.
I don't know how long it takes for the police to come either. So I stand there in the middle of my room and wait, a bit afraid of sitting down and disturbing anything. Also, I'm still starving. Can I eat? Is it appropriate to eat while waiting for the police to come?
At any rate, I'm still shaky and trying to figure out how this happened. I unlocked the door to come in, so clearly whomever entered had a key. I checked the back door and not only was it also locked, but the lock on the handle, which can only be turned from the inside, was also locked. The windows were neither broken, nor anything on any windowsills disturbed. I checked all my desk drawers, and nothing appeared to be taken. Not even anything that might appear to have value. My digital camera, my broken iPod, even the Netflix on my desktop were all still there. Nothing was even broken. Apparently even my "valuable" things are not appealing to anyone who might want to burgle me.
When the police officer finally came, she was very nice, but equally puzzled that nothing had been taken and only my desk had been disturbed. Also that whomever entered was polite enough to lock the door behind them, but not to push the drawers back in. She asked if I wanted to file a report, and I honestly had no idea, but we opted for it in case something ended up missing. She was also impressed that I had done half her job for her by checking in with my neighbors. I'd wanted to find out if anything had happened to them, if they'd heard anything, or just so they knew to be careful.
So now, according to the report, I'm officially a victim of a burglary and an unlawful entry. But all I really got out of it is a mildly interesting story to tell at work tomorrow, and an opportunity to call my management company and figure out what they plan to do about the fact that people are entering their tenants' apartments with keys and freaking them out.
So that's that.
As I start to walk into my living room, I notice that something is amiss. It takes me a second to realize what it was that was wrong, but finally I figure it out: my keyboard and mouse and much of my mail is on the floor, my computer is pulled away from the wall, and all my desk drawers are open. I stand there a moment shaking, and am not quite sure if I'm imagining it, and if not, what it is I need to do. So I call my mom and tell her that someone's been in my apartment, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.
She tells me to call the police, and I do, and then realize that the rest of my apartment is a mess, with dirty underwear and dishes are strewn about, and in this case only I'm to blame. However, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to clean it up, or not touch anything. I figure that they're most likely not going to be dusting for fingerprints, so I opt for sparing the poor police officers and cleaning up at least the most embarrassing bits.
I don't know how long it takes for the police to come either. So I stand there in the middle of my room and wait, a bit afraid of sitting down and disturbing anything. Also, I'm still starving. Can I eat? Is it appropriate to eat while waiting for the police to come?
At any rate, I'm still shaky and trying to figure out how this happened. I unlocked the door to come in, so clearly whomever entered had a key. I checked the back door and not only was it also locked, but the lock on the handle, which can only be turned from the inside, was also locked. The windows were neither broken, nor anything on any windowsills disturbed. I checked all my desk drawers, and nothing appeared to be taken. Not even anything that might appear to have value. My digital camera, my broken iPod, even the Netflix on my desktop were all still there. Nothing was even broken. Apparently even my "valuable" things are not appealing to anyone who might want to burgle me.
When the police officer finally came, she was very nice, but equally puzzled that nothing had been taken and only my desk had been disturbed. Also that whomever entered was polite enough to lock the door behind them, but not to push the drawers back in. She asked if I wanted to file a report, and I honestly had no idea, but we opted for it in case something ended up missing. She was also impressed that I had done half her job for her by checking in with my neighbors. I'd wanted to find out if anything had happened to them, if they'd heard anything, or just so they knew to be careful.
So now, according to the report, I'm officially a victim of a burglary and an unlawful entry. But all I really got out of it is a mildly interesting story to tell at work tomorrow, and an opportunity to call my management company and figure out what they plan to do about the fact that people are entering their tenants' apartments with keys and freaking them out.
So that's that.