Terrible Ending to a Good Night

Okay, so I finally had my fancy party this weekend, and I have a couple posts ready to go to tell you all about it, but first I have to blog about the worst part of my weekend.

Before my party, I ran out to pick up the alcohol.  Long-ish story short, I locked myself out of the vehicle. :(  I had to phone my boyfriend to pick up my dad to bring me the extra keys (it was my dad's van).  That sucked having to wait for half an hour, but it could have been worse, it could have been December and minus a billion degrees.

The party went great!  People had a lot of fun and everyone looked snazzy in their dress clothes!

After cleaning up at my dad's loft (loving holding parties there!)  my boyfriend and I were spent, and ready to crash as soon as we got to his house.

There was a terrible surprise waiting for us when we got home.  

His house had been broken into.  

The telephone table cupboard and draws were open, there were papers everywhere, and then we noticed the TV was turned to a funny angle.  They'd stolen the playstation 3 and one of the 2 stacks of games (apparently they didn't want Little Big Planet?!)

The den had been ripped apart too.  Computer wasn't touched.  They'd gone through drawers and boxes, looking for cash or jewelry most likely.  Because my boyfriend lives alone, there's no jewelry in the house, and he really doesn't keep cash around.  They did however take the $2 bill my boyfriend had had in a letter he wrote to himself in grade 9.  For those of you that don't know, Canada hasn't had $2 bills for a while (we have a coin).  I'm not sure if they figured it would be worth something, but it's really not been long enough that it would be.

We realized later that they had also taken his iPod touch.  But that was about it. The playstation, some games, and the iPod.  They'd ripped through his dresser in the bedroom too.

Adam called the cops right away, but of course it's 1:30am Sunday morning.  They're pretty busy.  He asked if it would make any difference if he called to have someone over the next morning instead of waiting for hours, and they said that'd be fine.  So we went to bed.  Or at least tried.

I don't think Adam slept at all, and I got a couple hours maybe (didn't help that the night before I only got 6 hours of sleep because I was excited about my party!)

We're almost certain they came in through the front door.  The house HAD old locks (we changed them the next day) and it was the way the front door lock had been installed that allowed them to get in pretty easily.

This is the old lock and the mechanism that slides into the wall part is beveled on the other side.  This one is the back door lock.  We're also pretty sure they tried this one first.

This is the lock that was on the front door.  See how the part on the right hand side is not flush with the end of the door?  This means the bolt part doesn't fit that deep in the wall part, and notice you can see some light through the crack?  We're guessing they slipped a screwdriver or something similar through the crack and got in (you couldn't do it with a credit card.  I tried)  If you live in an older house and have locks that resemble these, I'd strongly recommend changing them.

These are those things that you'd never really notice until something like this happens.  

Luckily the cops came the next morning about ten minutes after we called.  We managed to find the serial number for the playstation, which means that if it shows up at a pawn shop (it's highly likely that it would be pawned) we'd get it back.  The cops were pretty great.  I was actually impressed because often there is only so much they can do, and so many crimes where they'll never catch the person.  (for example, I have a cousin who was stabbed and beaten in broad daylight.  Cops suspected it was gang initiation and they pretty well gave up on it)  Note: it sounds like I live in a terrible city, but it's really not!

Additionally, they sent a guy from forensics to come to try to get some prints.  They usually can't get much, but because they moved the tv (which is a good surface for prints) it was actually worth trying.  

It was kinda fun to watch the guy work... it was like CSI in your own house.  lol  He got a palm print and partial thumb off the tv, but that was about it.  Because no one tracks palm prints, there's nothing they can do with it right now (ie they can't run it through the system) but if they have a suspect (the playstation is turned in at a pawn shop, or if there was other trouble in the neighborhood and they caught someone) they'd be able to compare it.  

So...yeah.  That was our very not fun ending to the evening.  The next day was spent putting things away, beefing up security, talking to the neighbors, and we caught a bit of the football game.

One of Adam's friends dropped by and had bought him a new ipod nano! How sweet is that?! (P.S.  I LOVE the new nanos and want one SO BAD!)  Another friend had dropped by for a bit just to hang out too which was nice.  

We went to Adam's parent's for supper Sunday night which was good, but we were really too tired to make for good company!  It was really hard leaving the house, and even harder and more nerve wracking to come home again.  It'll be a while until we're not thinking about it every time we come in.  

Unfortunately shit like this happens no matter what neighborhood you live in, and sometimes you need to remember that things are just things, and the house didn't get trashed either.  It's just very unsettling to think that someone you don't know has been in your house, and you can't help but feel violated and a little helpless.