Someone broke into my car last night and stole my oak showcases, among other things..

Sorry Charmy. Sounds like you got all the bad stuff out of the way.
Wish you and family a great Christmas.

Open that wine chiller and feel great that all the coins were safe.

 

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I'm sorry to hear this has happened to you. I really get upset when I hear stories like these. Nobody more cowardly than a thief.

 

Sorry Charmy. something similar happened to me a few years back. I never used to lock my truck. One morning I backed out of my driveway and saw my briefcase lying by my neighbor's tree. Nothing was missing, all it had in it was some operating system disks worth 2,000 dollars and the software that several banks use on their systems. Luckily, the thieves didn't know what this stuff was. ever since, I take my valuables in at night.
My sister lives in the city (Erie), and she learned early on NOT to lock her car doors. If it's locked, they break in, so people leave their vehicles unlocked, but with nothing valuable inside.

 

At least you didn't lose any valuable coins..

 

Sorry to hear you were violated in that manner. Sounds like you addressed that situation in the appropriate manner. I would like to suggest to you adding some simple and not very expensive security measures. Buy yourself a time lapse recorder and install some outside cameras out of normal reach on the outside of your house. The cameras can be purchased very reasonably at radio shack. Also install some motion lights, sometimes this alone will discourage any thief from completing their act.

I hope your able to quiet your mind and enjoy the Holiday Season.

Tom.

The best evidence you can offer the investigators is sometimes a recording of the crime in action recorded in real time. You may want to consider doing the same with the inside. Just conceal the devices as best you can. With all these fancy alarm systems, bells and whistles, cameras and recorders are your best bet in an addition to a "zone" type activation system.

 

Sorry for you loss Charmy. I am just glad to see the police in your area try to do something. When my sisters house was broken into - all the police would do is take a report on the list of items.

 

I know how you feel and hope they catch the creeps! I also hope they have bad karma for steeling just before Christmas! Sorry ~ hope the Holidays bring you some joy!

Best Regards ~ Darryl

 

sorry to hear the news.

That sucks.

 

Sorry to hear that....the scum of society just tee's me off! At least they didn't get any coins!

 

Sorry you had to go through this horrible situation. I know the times that I have had things stolen I can't shake the feeling of being violated for months or even years. It just angers me to the point of unreasonable preoccupation. It's a hard thing to get over for some people. I hope that you are able to move on and just forget this loser.
A few years back, my son was over at a friend's house and they were inside playing video games in a fairly nice neighborhood. Some kid walked into their front yard, laid his broken-down bike next to my son's $300 bike and put $4 under the handle bars and took my son's bike. I still occasionally eye kids riding red bikes and I searched for that bike for the rest of that summer. The point is that people steal for various reasons and this kid had enough of a conscience to believe that he wasn't stealing because he paid $4 and traded in his old bike. I would try to laugh at the thought of this guy trying to carry these heavy cases through the night and finally just giving up on the struggle and leaving two behind. Sometimes crime is a lot of work. Let's just hope this guy has to spend a chunk of change at his local Chiropractor after his escapade. Hang in there PL!

 

Sorry to hear that your car was broken into. Being a former police officer I can tell you from experience that it is VERY rare to find usable fingerprints on the surfaces of a vehicle. The outside, no matter how meticulously washed the car is, has dust on it which will effect the ridge patterns of the print. Usually there's so much dust that it's impossible to pick up enough ridge pattern in a finger print to use it for identification. The inside of a car is not much better unless you have wood grain trim, otherwise there's not many smooth surfaces on the interior of a car. One thing that might work is a glue gun to fume for the prints but that usually does more damage to the vehicle than the valuables taken and I have never seen that technique used on a vehicle except when it involved a homicide scene.

I refuse to criticize you for leaving those items in the vehicle as it sounds like you took great measures to conceal the items that were taken. It's the folks that leave their family heirlooms on the front seat for God and everybody to see it that drove me nutty when they were surprised that their car got broken into. Hopefully, with some luck the police in your area will be able to recover your missing case and other items. Check with the detective that has your case and the other neighbors within a few blocks of where you live to see if there was additional burglaries. It's been my experience that if there's one car broken into in your area, there was likely more on the same block or the next couple of blocks over. It's rare that car burglars will hit one car and just leave the area unless they were spooked out of the area by approaching cars or an unexpected neighbor leaving their house. If there were other items taken in your area the police will have a lot better luck in finding a large group of items than one individual item.

Again, sorry it happened to you but that is, unfortunately, the world we live in.

KHarmon

 

Sorry. Was your car or truck a "Ford" 2005-2009? The new type handles are easy to open with screw driver. My son's new truck was open and a pistol and I-pod were stolen at a shopping center here That day at the shopping center, about 20 units were broken into.
Did the jerks get any of you personal information. Your house could be next, since they know now about the business your in or deal with. Good luck, bad for the holidays. -O)

 

I agree 100%!

 

Just when you think your stuff is safe its not!! Its more about the
Violation then the property itself !!

 

Everyone, thank you so much for all your concern and suggestions. My coins are safe, no worries there. We too are very grateful the situation wasn't more serious. All the things that were taken can be replaced and I'm not too concerned about that. It's just the level of security I once took for granted has been dealt a large blow - which could be a good thing since my husband has often accused me of being too trusting. Believe me, we are going to take a lot more precautions. And to address some of your questions and comments (both here and in pm's):

edited

We already looked at the sensor lights last night and will get those installed this week. I'm looking into the security system today, and we have already put the word out about getting a German Shepherd - we used to have a beautiful German Shepherd who was the best watch dog but he died a few years ago. My husband couldn't part with the dog house he had built, so now we're glad we kept it! I will also look into getting a beefed up car alarm system.

My cases were way too heavy for the thieves to be on foot, and the box of stuff they took with the books, etc., would also have been too heavy for them to hand carry very far. They definitely had a vehicle and more than one person. Since the method they used to break in was "old fashioned," the police believe the thieves might not have been kids.

For the past several years, my city has been voted the "safest city in the country" so I asked the police officer (who was a women, by the way, as was the CSI officer) about this. She said that title was referring to bodily injury crimes of which we have very little, but as far as property crimes, that was a different story. She said, if you were a thief, where would you rather steal from - the poor city you live in, or the more affluent city a few miles away?

So, again, thank you everyone, and even though this has affected us, it will not consume us, nor will it take away the joy I get from dealing and collecting coins. I know there are desperate people out there, but we are indeed fortunate in having our family safe and healthy, and in being able to have what we have and do what we enjoy. I am thankful to all you wonderful CT people and I hope you can take some time to appreciate and spend time with your loved ones during this holiday season.

 

Charmy,

Like you, I live in a nice neighborhood with nice houses....but we did have a problem a few years back with my son's car getting broken into at night. It happened TWICE just a couple months apart.

After the second time I installed a great device! It's called a buzzbulb:

http://www.google.com/products?hl=e...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQrQQwAg

I replaced the outside light above our garage door with a dual floodlight with motion detection. I put a floodlight in one socket and this buzzbulb in the other socket. Over the next couple months this thing went off about 3 times! Each time I can running down with my shotgun in hand looking for a perp.....but nobody was there. HEHEHEHEHEHE The ONLY way it would go off is if someone steped onto my driveway....I tested and adjusted it perfectly....it would even ignore my dog.

Anyhow, just a suggestion if you park in your driveway. It worked for me! I've NEVER had a single problem since installing it.

 

You are probably the only coin person on the street where you live and I always ask the question in these instances - why me? You may have not been targeted from the prior weekend show but someone probably knows you are involved with coins which is why you were targeted rather than your neighbors. Is there any reason why you and not your neighbors would be the target? Some mind detective work might yield some information on "why me."

 

Sounds like someone who knew what they were after,probably thought the cases would be full of treasures yet! I feel for you,I lost almost my entire coin collection to a theif in the early 80's and it discouraged me to the point I quit until just recently picking up the habit again,sorry for your loss of possesion,glad they didn't come in the house and you are safe.