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Hi Everyone,
This past week has been a real bummer:
I came home Monday evening after a great day to find a very unpleasant surprise:
My apartment had been broken into and burglarized.
It was a very lame way to end an otherwise great weekend.
I knew something was up when I noticed that the key hole on the apartment door was massively twisted and tampered with. It was about 6:30pm and I'd just arrived home from a morning visiting family and a day out with the guys. My key wouldn't even fit in the lock as if someone had broken a key off in it or the door had been jimmied open and forced back shut.
At that point, I had suspicions that the apartment has been broken into, but I figured that it may have just been a broken key that my roommate might have accidently broke off so I resolved to call the apartment maintenance man... only I had a problem: I couldn't get in and I'm a dinosaur with no cell phone. So I tried my neighbors hwo live in the door across from me, but they weren't home. The next-best neighbors were upstairs so I walked up and Korean Amber let me use her phone. Nice lady.
When the maintenance man called he was across town and told me it would take him at least thirty minutes to get to the complex. So I had a wait and Amber had plans so I couldn't wait with her. I decided to check out the streetside of my aprtment where the patio and external windows are. My room's window was Ok, but I could peek through the blinds and see that my room had been ransacked and my bathroom light left on, which I had distinctly remembered turning off before I last left. I checked Larry's window and his room looked similarly dishevelled. So, next I checked out the patio, which looked fine from a glance... I hopped over the patio wall and tried the sliding glass door noticing that the Charley Bar was up, another thing I remember checking before I left the apartment last (I'm a pretty methodical focussed person and have my routines for things to check before I leave the place)... and, the sliding glass door was unlocked and slid open.
I entered the living room / commons area and noticed that a good part of our (my roommate and I's) DVD movie collection was missing. I checked out both rooms, which looked like they had either been run through by the world's worst last-minute vacation packing specialists... OR burglarized. About that time the maintenance man, Bob (Why are they always named Bob or Mike?), knocked and I let him in. I told him the story and my suspicions and he checked out the lock, fixing it. He told me right then and there to call the police immediately and report a break-in and theft so... I did. It was about 7:00pm PST about that time. I discussed getting the lock replaced with the maintenance man and tried to figure out what to do. He left and I apologized for having disrupted his church services (he is a Gospel singer), which he was very understanding about.
It seemed as if he had barely left when my roommate and his girlfriend showed up. I quickly let them know what happened and to not touch anything in case fingerprints would be needed. I asked Larry if he had left his room tht way or if he had taken the DVD movies... nope. He told me he also thought we had been robbed and was pretty angry about it. I was just trying to keep my cool. Police dispatch called me to say that they weren't sure when an officer would be coming. Bummer.
So, Larry and I waited around for the police officer to come and tried to figure out what was stolen. Here's what we figured we lost so far:
Larry:
- Laptop computer
- A nice dress watch
- Another nice dress watch that had been a gift from his brother and sister when he graduated university
Maks:
- DVD movies
- Two change bowls, one with silver and the other pennies
So, it could have been much worse. I've been through some pretty bad things in my life so I could put this terrible event and context and lose my cool. After all, having some things which can be replaced stolen is nothing compared to fearing for your life or having the knowledge that your loved ones have been hurt.
The police finally showed up a little bit before Midnight and Larry and I each gave our statements, filled out the appropriate forms, and took care of everything he needed. The sheriff (not really a police officer but a sheriff) was very professional ad left us with his card and some more forms for filing later if we found anything else missing.
I got to bed really late.
And I got up late Tuesday morning too. I went to shave off my three-day weekend beard and... the Cads had stolen my razor. Luckily for me, I usually have disposable ones I keep for guests under my sink just in case. So I had to use those and they usually don't give me the smoothest shave... suck. And I got out late to the train by three minutes, which forced me to run 3/4 of a mile to not miss the train. On top of that all, we had boring audits to do all week at school and I was short on sleep so...
Please send me some positive vibes and a little good karma!
Perhaps, the other worst part about being burgled was that they tore up my place looking for portable valuables.
I still owe the following people trades off the top of my head:
Bruce Down Unda:
- x1 E:A Eldar Warhost &
- x1 E:A Imperial Guard Infantry Co.
Mario / Centurion in Alaska:
- x40 Valhallan infantry
Luis AKA Cuban Commissar in Colorado:
- x1 OGRE Minis rulebook
- x1 Centurion grav tanks game
If there is anyone else, please let me know so I can take care of my debts to you ASAP.
I apologize for any delays and am cleaning up the place and regathering the puiles of trade goods into packages to be sent again.
The only real dog day event to add on top of the theft, and boring audits, is that I came down with a really bad stomach flu on Thursday and have been all but bed-ridden since. I hope that 'm finally on the downhill end of this flu.
Wishing everyone the best!
Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
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and ultimately the more they will support each other. ?Very rough when they are not so good at 'self maintenance' though... ?if I was designing humans I would have made them pop out already toilet trained 
