I hate learning lessons the hard way.
Here's what I learned this week:
Lesson 1: Even though we live in a nice, secluded neighborhood, burglars are everywhere and we need to lock our door (I know...duh)
Three days ago, at 12:30 in the morning, someone came through our unlocked sliding glass door. The dogs barked like crazy and woke me up. When I came out to shut them up, I could tell something was wrong because they wouldn't stop barking. KC was behind the couch, shaking. At first I thought there must have been raccoons eating out of the trash bag on the table outside and that's what they were barking at. I thought it was strange, though, that for 10 minutes the dogs sniffed the carpet and sniffed the air. They barked for another 20 minutes no matter what I did. I finally woke Larry up and said, "I think somebody's in the house...the dogs are going crazy." He lifted his head, mumbled something, and went back to sleep. I slept on the couch with the dogs the rest of the night because they were so freaked out.
The next morning I got ready to leave the house and couldn't find my purse. I called Larry and asked if he'd seen it. It took all of 2 seconds to put everything together and realize we'd been robbed.
Lesson 2: Make copies of everything in your wallet in case your purse is lost or stolen.
Canceling credit cards is much easier when you know which cards were in your wallet in the first place. When you have photo copies you'll have not only the customer service phone numbers to call, but the account numbers as well. I had done this once 15 years ago but hadn't done it since.
For the past two days I've been closing my bank account (my checkbook was in my wallet), putting a stop payment on checks, and getting a social security card (never had one for some reason), which you need in order to get another driver's license, which you need in order to open another bank account.
Lesson 3: Don't save gift cards...spend them! Larry had just given me $100 Starbucks gift card for my birthday. Gone. Not that I'd have been able to spend $100 on lattes in 6 days, but I could have at least tried.
Lesson 4: When your house is burglarized tell your neighbors. You might save them from a similar fate. Two of our neighbors directly to our right were robbed the night before. If we'd known, we would have been more diligent about locking our doors.
Lesson 5: Don't buy expensive purses. (But I LOVED my Cole Haan purse!)
Enough said.
I wasn't the only one who learned a lesson...
Larry learned he needs to lock his car. His expensive prescription sunglasses were stolen from his car in the driveway.
And Eric learned to sleep with a bat next to his bed.
Postscript:
The police took a report and dusted for fingerprints. Nada. But it doesn't matter because they already know who did it...it's a white guy in his late 20s who lives on one of the lanes behind us (easy access through the woody trails in our backyard), and is a heroin addict.
He took my purse at 12:30 a.m., used my credit card at a gas station at 2:00 a.m. and a Starbucks at 8:25 a.m. He obviously didn't know to use the Starbucks gift card that couldn't be traced. The police are going to review the surveillance video from the gas station from 2:00 a.m. that matches the amount spent on my card. That's what they did for our neighbor's burglary and that's how they know who did it. There is a warrant out for his arrest. The cops know where he lives and what kind of car he drives. They haven't found him yet, but it's only a matter of time.
So...
What did you learn today?
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