Thursday, September 04, 2008

Theft is a violation of the spirit

Yesterday morning, I was sleeping in late, and was awakened by dogs barking next door.
The neighbors have two big dogs, and one in particular barks all the time.
I actually nicknamed him "Barky the wonder dog" because any little noise, person walking by, or shadow will have him nervous and agitated.

But both dogs were going ballistic.
I went into the living room to look out the window.
Hmmm...a car I don't recognize is in the neighbor's driveway.

One part of me got that flutter in my stomach, what my friend Tracie (who is a black belt and a self-defense instructor) calls "the creep factor".
The other part of me said, "go outside...check it out..."
"No...(creep factor again) it could be dangerous."
"You're being silly. It's 9 o'clock in the morning!"

My mom was resting on the couch (something she NEVER does, by the way), so I didn't want to disturb her by opening the door, the action I probably would have taken had she not been there.
Hmmm...
Tracie, again, would call that "a God thing".
In other words, perhaps the end result would not have been positive had I done that.

I ended up opening the garage door to walk out that way (should have gone out the back door...that was my error), but they had just left.

The neighbor came to my door about 15 minutes later, shaking, saying they had been robbed.
Again.

Dammit, I knew something was wrong.
I'm not sure if I should be glad or sad that I didn't listen to my intuition.
I was only able to give a vehicle description.
My eyesight is too poor to have id'ed a license plate.

The fact is that in these unsteady economic times, people are desperate.
Add in a drug addiction, and it gets scary.
Too, here in San Diego, housing is so expensive that a lot of the riff raff is being pushed east, toward where I live.
Growing up here, it was a nice area.
Not anymore.

My mom is alone a lot, with poor hearing.
That scares me.
The houses are somewhat isolated, lots of land behind, no houses across the street.
I told her she just can't leave the garage and back gate open anymore.
You just can't anymore...it's a different world.

I found myself tossing and turning last night, nervous of any noise.
Not good.
Our house has been robbed several times too, though it has been years.
When I was in high school, I stayed after school to practice with the swim team, and came home to pulled-out drawers, and stuff on the floor of the living room, waiting to be taken.
Evidently I scared them off.
I was naive and confused, and called my brother, who told me, "Um, get outta the house!"
Oh. Yeah.

Anyway, that was interesting.
I can't fathom stealing from anyone for any reason.
I wish more people felt the same way.

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6 Comments:

Blogger Queenly Things said...

Aaackkk! Just leave me a note, tell me you want my stuff and I'll put it out on the street. Just don;t break into my house.

8:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh I hear you, does your Mum have a dog? I feel much safer at home knowing my dog will alert me.

7:17 AM  
Blogger Gina E. said...

Oh Barb, how horrible for you - and even worse for your neighbors. I think Miss Dot has a point - a dog of your own to keep your Mom company and alert her to trespassers would be good.

I agree with your sentiments about stealing - I could not do such a thing as breaking into someone else's property and helping myself. I think some Arab countries still have a law where they cut fingers off a convicted thief's hands. Barbaric? I'll bet it stops a few more doing the same crime!

8:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How scary for you. I can't imagine being robbed. We are terrible but we rarely lock our house doors. I know we should because even if we are somewhat isolated crime still happens here. We are planning a possible move to LA and I must admit that going into an area that has more crime makes me a little nervous.

12:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hope your neighbour is recovered. Huge shock for her. In the UK a police officer will go around your home and tell you where you can improve security.

7:23 AM  
Blogger Brenda said...

Wow Barb, sorry for your neighbors. Glad that they and you are ok. Scary.

3:30 PM  

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