Burglary 101

Tips to successful burglary:

1. Don't keep obvious evidence in your house.
2. Don't break into 10 different places in one day.
3. Don't steal sentimental personal items.
4. Don't burglarize storage units.
And last ... and most importantly ...
5. Don't EVER burglarize the HABAN FAMILY!!

So, Wednesday night I get a call from the owners of our storage unit that we have in Central. The call goes like this:

Martha: Hi, is this Jami?
Me: Yes.
Martha: *sigh* Jami, I'm afraid I have some bad news. I'm calling to let you know that your storage unit is missing it's lock. When I closed up this evening your unit and one other unit were without locks. I peaked inside and I can see that there are still things in it but, I'm not sure if anything is missing.
Jami: uh-huh
Martha: So, I've put a lock on it for now but, I'm going to need you to replace it. Would you like to meet me down there tonight or in the morning?
Jami: The morning should be fine. I'll call you before we plan on heading out there. Thank you for letting me know.
Martha: Thank you. Good-bye.

After hanging up I started thinking of everything that was in our storage unit...
- Kameron's La-Z-Boy chair that I got him for our wedding. We just don't have room for it in our house.
- All my Christmas tree ornaments from the year I was born until last year. These are very sentimental things to me. Each year my mom and/or Grandma would give us each an ornament so they all have special meaning.
- Our Christmas tree
- Our loveseat
- Our other couch
- A bed
- A desk ... (I'm starting to think we have way to much furniture!!)
- Some of Kason's baby things from when he was little
- And the list could go on and on.

Since my mind started thinking about all these things I decided I had to go look and see what all was missing or I may not sleep that night. I called Martha and asked her if we could meet her.

After buying a new lock we drove out to our unit to see what was missing. As soon as the door was opened I noticed that the La-Z-Boy chair was missing. (strike 1) Then I went inside and noticed that one of our boxes of Christmas decorations was missing. (strike 2) As I opened the other box, I realized that the missing box was the one containing ALL of my ornaments. (strike 3)

I cried the whole way home. I cried as I called my mom. And I cried for a good 10 minutes after that. I felt SO violated. Why would someone choose OUR unit? Why would they take MY ornaments? What sentimental value do they have to THEM? none. It didn't make sense and I couldn't believe it had really happened. I probably cried myself to sleep that night.

Thursday morning I called the Sheriff's Department to file a report. They told me a Sheriff would be in contact with us shortly. Sure enough, Kameron called about 15 minutes later and told me that the Sheriff called and told us we need to put together a list of everything that was missing from the unit.
Alright, I got to work putting together a list of everything missing. That includes ALL the ornaments that were missing and all the Christmas decorations that were gone. Not an easy task considering that fact that there were atleast 22 ornaments in that box!!

Then, later that morning Martha calls me. She says we need to take our old key to the Sheriff's office. They think they may have a lead. So, off we go.

After 10 minutes of the secretary trying to figure out what we were talking about, she decided it would be easier to just go get the Sheriff. Sheriff Boyd comes out to talk to us. We find out that the night before (wednesday!) they got a search warrant on a house were they found tons of cut locks, and lots of random merchandise. Hmmm .... sound a bit fishy?! So, they took our list and our old key to match it up to one of the locks & to keep it for evidence. We went home feeling a lot more hopeful then we went in.

Later that day, Sheriff Boyd called us back. This was the phone call we had been wanting!! He told us that they think they found everything on our list!! (YAY!) It will still take a while to complete the investigation but, from what he can see, everything on our list is still there!

I couldn't believe it. It was such a relief!! I had been such a horrible Wednesday night. I was SO grateful that they caught this crook. I still can't believe we were burglarized. It's just one of the crazy stories that we will look back on one day a laugh about! We get victim's rights too so, if there is a trial (and believe you me ... THERE HAD BETTER BE A TRIAL!!) ... I'll be at that trial!!