no more certain than I think I might have been before: uncertainty, con't.

[jebreject]

[clare]

what the fuck? that's your door?

[Bernard]

mr jeb do hang in there

[jebreject]

what the fuck? that's your door?

Yup! Not sure how they got in the building exactly, but once they were in the back hallway, they just kicked in the door to our apartment and went from there.

[peacocks]

holy shit jeb! I'm so sorry! having your stuff stolen doesn't seem like it would compare to coming home to the door of your apartment looking like that. Just goes to show that "if they want to get in they'll get in" and now I feel like I need a baseball bat.

[milesofsparks]

is Crimbo OK?

[jebreject]

Yes, thankfully! He got out of our apartment but it seems they never left the outside doors open or anything because the furthest he got was the attic. He was pretty spooked though, but even more when we locked him in the bathroom while the cop was doing his thing.

[jebreject]

Landlord is going to replace that door with a solid core door (which it should have been in the first place), and eventually he'll replace the front inside door and the door to his apartment as well. We also installed brackets on either side of the door we think they entered through and put a 2 x 4 across so there's no way anyone is coming in there. We did the same for the side door but I think that will mostly be left unobstructed. (The reason we think they entered through the back door is because the bolt was not locked when we looked at it. Or maybe they just left through that door, but it still doesn't explain how they got in. My brother thinks they probably used a bump key, but the cop thinks that's highly unlikely--his theory is that the bolt was unlocked already and they used a butter knife or something similar to jimmy the handle lock. I can't think of a single reason why the bolt would have been left undone, though.)

We have also installed bars on the only window that's easily accessible from the ground (this was a few days ago, in response to landlord's apartment being broken in to), and all of the windows have good locks and those little tab things you can use to prevent the window being opened more than like a foot. For what it's worth, we're now just about secure as we can possibly be (or at least we will be when we get our replacement door), but it's still scary to know that someone can do this. Like Cocks said. "If they want to get in, they'll get in." At least we can make it harder for them.

My biggest hope out of all this isn't even getting our stuff back--it really sucks, a lot, but I can live without my Xbox for a while, and while I don't want to re-buy games I already had, or DVDs, whatever, I can deal--but rather that these little shitheads left a couple good quality prints and that they're arrested.

Apparently they took a necklace that M's then-boyfriend gave her, and he recently died in Iraq, so it has a lot of sentimental value. That's probably the one thing that really pisses me off. I mean, I'm pissed about my movies and stuff, but those are replaceable.

My brother told me he thinks I should get a gun. I told him he's insane.

[DCDave]

Barf. Sorry dude. Irony re: Renter's insurance

[ellaguru]

Jeez, that sucks, Jeb.

[davy]

The job they did on that door is fucking brutal. Fuck those guys.

I'm sorry man

[Bernard]

Yeah, if you'd had a gun, there would now be armed thieves out there kicking in doors.

[Antero]

Fucking hell, Jeb.  That's awful.

[jebreject]

Apparently they took a necklace that M's then-boyfriend gave her, and he recently died in Iraq, so it has a lot of sentimental value.

One tiny bit of good news: they did not in fact get this necklace; it was simply somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. We must have misplaced it while packing, and it never got unpacked with the rest of the jewelery (which was rifled through, but it seems as though nothing else is missing).

[jebreject]

Thanks for the support, everyone. I'm still trying to convince myself that it's okay to like leave the house and stuff, that things will be fine without me here. My biggest fear now is that they're going to come back to get my guitars and amps. I mean, it seems highly unlikely, but I've become paranoid that when they got the landlord's place, they found a key for the outside doors, and that's how they got in to the building*, and that would allow them to come back when they have more time and more able-bodied men to steal all the rest of our shit. Which is a moot point with a two-by-four preventing the door from being opened, but it's still scary regardless.

*This actually is the most rational explanation I can come up with re: how the fuck they got in in the first place. Not that it's totally unthinkable that someone accidentally left the bolt unlocked, but it seems really unlikely to me.

The other part of this that is really fucking with me is that we've switched to keeping our bikes outside, and we fretted for quite a while about the safety of keeping them on the back porch, so that they don't get stolen. We bought cables and new locks and all kinds of stuff. And in the end, the problem with keeping our bikes outside wasn't that someone stole them, it was that they were used to help identify whether we were home or not and whether it was safe to break in to our apartment.

[G.C.R]

Oh Jeb, jeez, I'm sorry. In your new place too (not that it would have been better if it was a place you'd been in for ages, but its nice to be able to acclimatise and feel comfortable in a place before having the carpet ripped from under you like that.)

[Thermofusion]

That sucks ass, Jeb. Glad you and your instruments are OK, though!

[jebreject]

Thanks, everyone.

Constantly refreshing Craigslist looking for my shit is not at all helpful. I should probably stop doing it.

Otherwise, I guess we're doing okay? Meditation has helped some, and remembering that what was taken was only stuff, and all things that are replaceable. I'll get these tinges of sadness and anger, like, They took You Don't Know Jack! Sons of bitches! but mostly I can deal with that. It's harder to deal with the fear that they're going to come back. I keep seeing the image of coming in through the side door, going up the steps and seeing our door busted in like that. I keep seeing it over and over again. Ugh.

I sort of want to ask an unemployed friend to come hang out here during the day while we're working until the new door comes Wednesday.

[FreddyKnuckles]

Or buy a large medieval axe of some sort and take two days off work

[jebreject]

If only I could afford to take off work.

[FreddyKnuckles]

You're in Wisconsin right? There's probably a dozen or so teachers who'd be willing to come by.

[elpollodiablo]

Dating a Republican: it will make you a bigger asshole

[elpollodiablo]

I mean seriously, wtf

[peacocks]

Not an excuse, but

The inability to resist a joke no matter how offensive is also a papa knucks trait

[jebreject]

I chuckled.