Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

I've been robbed!!!!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and I did too, until about 10:00 that night.

We spent the day at my uncle's house in northern NJ, and then we came home at night. When we got home, we didn't find anything unusual, exept that the phone was off the hook, but we thought it was just one of us forgetting to hang it up. But a few minutes later, my mom noticed her jewelry container in the middle of the hallway outside her bedroom. I then noticed my computer (P4, 1.4 GHz) was gone! In addition was all my computer games (a WHOLE lot, some date back to when I was in second grade), and some old LPs. We then found a smashed window. The police came (EXTREMELY nice police), said there were no fingerprints, investigated the place, and left. The theifs stole what they did very selectively, not stealing any of the bazillion cameras sitting around our house, or a laptop, or another computer. One funny thing is my computer was defragging at the time. So here are the losses:

1. Jewelry, including necklaces, wedding rings, etc.
   
2. A somewhat new computer, but NOT the moniter, keyboard, speakers, etc. Very strange.
   
3. A lot of CD-ROMs, games mostly, some new, some old. I miss them.
   
4. Some old LPs that were my dad's favorites, that were sitting next to the computer because I was converting them to CDs.
   
5. A pillowcase. He had to lug it all in something.
   

__________________
-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 443

Re: I've been robbed!!!!

quote:

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Originally posted by ernieba1

A somewhat new computer, but NOT the moniter, keyboard,

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sorry about your loss, man. that sucks.

a few years ago i worked at a video store and one day i come to work and find the front door smashed in. i go upstairs, fearing the worst. my laptop (which i'd left sitting on the counter) was still there, as was the store's computer, vcr, laserdisc player, television, and the cash for the float for the next day....

what did the thief take?

a used copy of The Little Mermaid. i'm not kidding. at the time, the film was out of print and going for about $200 used, if you could find one for sale.

someone had smashed our door ($300 damage), found the rental sleeve for the film in the front of the store, looked up the number on the spine, went into the back of the store and found the matching cassette, and left.

we figure he was extremely drunk and doing it on a bet, or had to apologize to his kid for something very evil that he'd done.

mc

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Spring Lake Park, MN (45min from minneapolis)
Posts: 313

Gosh, that would be my worst dream come true Sorry about your loss. I also would hate for my computer to be gone, since we only have one. Of course he could have done alot more damgae than what he did do. And whoever didnt turn on the alarm must feel pretty bad right now. We personally dont have any security stuff, we rely on our robot sam(just kidding). It sure must have felt wierd sleeping that night, not knowing what else he might have done, and you dont know yet.

__________________
"Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs."
"The sum of the intelligence on the planet is constant, but the population is increasing"
"I am not a vegetarian because i love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.-- A. Whitney Brown"

Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

man - that gotta suck - and on thanksgiving!

I have to admit though, thats some weird stuff to steal - the laptop probably is worth twice as much as the desktop!

__________________
-miradu

Registered: Aug 2001
Location:
Posts: 383

Sorry bout that. However I suggest that with your insurance money you get an Athlon XP 1400 or better for your box. You can even save money and assemble it yourself if you are feeling adventureous or are in to that stuff.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

Breaking and Re-entering

Ernie, its a damn good thing they didn't get your PDA. I've lost a few high-tech devices in my time, and always found that the anticipation of a new machine quickly outweighed my sense of loss, even if it meant I had to work doubly hard for the money to pay for it.

A close friend once had his house absolutely cleaned out....big console television, stereo, furniture.....but the beauty of it all was they left the most valuable thing in the house....an original Andrew Wyeth painting....hanging on the wall. Idiots.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

Sorry to hear that. When I was in the third grade it happened to my family as well. The worst part was just knowing someone had been in there and could easily come back, at any time.

Glad you did not lose your Visor and PC, that would be a nightmare.

I would be thankful you and your family were not home when it happened and nobody got hurt.

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

Re: Breaking and Re-entering

quote:

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Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
Ernie, its a damn good thing they didn't get your PDA. I've lost a few high-tech devices in my time, and always found that the anticipation of a new machine quickly outweighed my sense of loss, even if it meant I had to work doubly hard for the money to pay for it.

A close friend once had his house absolutely cleaned out....big console television, stereo, furniture.....but the beauty of it all was they left the most valuable thing in the house....an original Andrew Wyeth painting....hanging on the wall. Idiots.

---

__________________
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Spring Lake Park, MN (45min from minneapolis)
Posts: 313

I have this green recycling bin in my room that looks like garbage, but i use it for storage. And if i ever leave my Clie for extended periods of time i put it in there, which is also where i keep my large rolls of cash. I'd think that would be there last place to look.

__________________
"Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs."
"The sum of the intelligence on the planet is constant, but the population is increasing"
"I am not a vegetarian because i love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.-- A. Whitney Brown"

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Mad I tell ya

What happened is sickening! How can someone do such a thign on Thanksgiving Day out of all days! The person(s) who commit this crime are despicable. He/she/they can run but they can't hide!

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Spring Lake Park, MN (45min from minneapolis)
Posts: 313

Re: Mad I tell ya

quote:

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Originally posted by yardie
He/she/they can run but they can't hide!

---

__________________
"Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs."
"The sum of the intelligence on the planet is constant, but the population is increasing"
"I am not a vegetarian because i love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.-- A. Whitney Brown"

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Oregon
Posts: 115

I had a good friend who's house was robbed on christmas eve. The cops said they get a lot of buggleries on the holidays casue they know people will be gone.

Sorry for you and yours...

__________________
Rose's are Red
My Visor is Blue...

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

Update and responses

Okay, this is the first time I've checked this thread since I posted it. I'll do some responding and give an update.

Update:

They did NOT steal any records. Our mistake. They're sitting across the room.

They DID steal in addition to the computer, 2 Gravis Gamepads. Makes me worried that maybe they stole it for themselves, and will use info that might be on it (like passwords, etc. which I will change).

My computer was defragging when they stole it.

Responses (sorry for not attributing the quotes):

quote:

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And whoever didnt turn on the alarm must feel pretty bad right now.

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Yep. We also just got a new one. We didn't feel like anything could happen to US. And we got this great sign from the security company to put in front of our house .

quote:

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It sure must have felt wierd sleeping that night, not knowing what else he might have done, and you dont know yet.

---

Yeah it's pretty weird. I slept over at a friend's house that night. But now we put the alarm on at night, and the police say they usually don't come back.

quote:

---

I have to admit though, thats some weird stuff to steal - the laptop probably is worth twice as much as the desktop!

---

He didn't even step into the room with the laptop, the same room as another desktop.

quote:

---

Sorry bout that. However I suggest that with your insurance money you get an Athlon XP 1400 or better for your box. You can even save money and assemble it yourself if you are feeling adventureous or are in to that stuff.

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No, I'm just gonna replace my old Dell with a new Dell. Probably a Pentium 4 1.9 MHz (when you buy a 2 MHz PC, they force you to buy reduculous extras, like surround sound speakers, moniter (which I already have), 100 GB HD, etc.). And I was thinking of building it, and I could, but I need it quick.

quote:

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A close friend once had his house absolutely cleaned out....big console television, stereo, furniture.....but the beauty of it all was they left the most valuable thing in the house....an original Andrew Wyeth painting....hanging on the wall. Idiots.

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We've also got a lot of art that they didn't take, some student paintings, but most expensive: an original, Eisenstat photograph of Willy Mays, signed by Eisenstat.

quote:

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I do hope he has it insured...

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Everything's insured, but the jewelry is hard to value, most of it were gifts.

quote:

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He/she/they can run but they can't hide!

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Nobody knows whether it was a he/she/they or anything. We actually assume it was once person because not THAT much was taken. And they sure can hide!

I think that was my longest post ever (including quotes).

__________________
-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 17

Kids robbed me

My office was broken into a month or so ago; must've been kids; they took my zip drive out of the desk drawer (it's a PC card attachment; I only have a laptop) and threw it on the floor, along with the contents of every drawer in the place. They stole some briefcases, CD players, a 35mm camera, and left the digital camera, a really good CD player, all the CD's, etc. My laptop, fortunately, goes with me everywhere, as does my Prism. But I had several lightweight printers, etc, which weren't bothered. Crooks are really strange, but I was glad these weren't tech savvy. Still, I will never know all that was stolen, and will never find all my files.

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 229

Sorry to here this bud, Is that the same computer that's in your avatar?....I dont know what i would do if i got my computer stolen, this thing probably does have my blood on it. I payed for everything and built and modded it (the blood part, first time cutting metal). I'd be lost without this stuff, good thing you got insurance for your belongings, i should probably look into things like that. I dont buy much but when i do it cost to much. Good luck finding the culprit(s).

__________________
Don't Worry It's Human Nature To Point Out The Obvious

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

ernieba1:

Could this have been someone you know? It seems odd that they'd steel a computer like yours (along with game pads and games...) and jewelery...and nothing else. It COULD be someone you know. A friend, or a friend of a friend that's been in your house/room.

As for weird theft stories, back in college, one of roomates stayed the summer. We'd show up every once in a while, and there'd always be something missing, like the TV remote. We kept blaming him for loosing everything.

Well, on the way home one day, our roomate was stopped by the police. They said your house was robbed. It turns out some kids had broken into our house that summer and stole a bunch of miscellaneous crap. A box of Playboys, a bunch of DAT storage tapes, the TV remote, etc. They apparantly were doing it all over town that summer. Since my roomate was the last to claim the stolen goods, the cops made him take all of the unclaimed stuff just because they didn't want it laying around the cop-shop.

The kids had to write a long apology letter. We had it framed.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

quote:

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Originally posted by LeaDxPainT
Sorry to here this bud, Is that the same computer that's in your avatar?

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Hehe. Yeah it is, but everything you see in the avatar i still have (moniter, speakers, keyboard, mouse). The tower was pretty cool though.

quote:

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Originally posted by Homer
Could this have been someone you know? It seems odd that they'd steel a computer like yours (along with game pads and games...) and jewelery...and nothing else. It COULD be someone you know. A friend, or a friend of a friend that's been in your house/room.

---

I doubt it. Everyone I know is either too stupid to have done this, or too smart . The police said it was very normal. They were probably going to the master bedroom (my parents') but on the way they saw my computer, defragging, and took it for the ride. The police say they usually only go for the jewelry, in something like this.

UPDATE: State Farm says I can get a new PC, but maybe only as good as I had (I was looking forward to a new 1.9 MHz nVida gForce3 computer, which I'll probably still end up getting).

Letterman style Top 4 things I'm dissapointed about (besides the obvious);
1. My computer is usually set to turn on automatically every morning at 6:30 when I have to wake up, unfortunately I turned that off for thanksgiving. It would be halarious for them to wake up suddenly with my PC turning on.
2. I turned SETI@home off during the defrag, so they won't be benefitting scientific research without even knowing it.
3. They'll have a newly defragged computer. Not only do they get the new computer, but it's gonna be speedy.
4. I just got a MS Force Feedback Joystick on eBay.

More to come. . .

__________________
-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Aug 2001
Location:
Posts: 383

Doesn't state farm just give you $$$ that you use to buy the computer? Or do you have to buy it, then submit the bill for approval?

This makes me think about implementing some better security on my system. And where'd you get the thing to have your computer turn on by itself at a time you decide?

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Spring Lake Park, MN (45min from minneapolis)
Posts: 313

What do you use to make your computer wake up at a specified time? Sounds like a neat tool, Maybe now i wont need to wait 7 minutes just to start it in the morning.

__________________
"Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs."
"The sum of the intelligence on the planet is constant, but the population is increasing"
"I am not a vegetarian because i love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.-- A. Whitney Brown"

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

well, if you have a Macintosh, scheduled start up has been built in since at least 1995 ...
Silly Windoze peoples, still in the Dark Ages of technology ...

Having done my "neener-neener" of the day, I didn't think it was possible to have an automated startup on an Intel or Athelon based computer, due to the architecture. Else I had an instructor who was misinformed. How'd you do it Bernie?
Meanwhile, I'm going to burrow thru my shelf of computer books. (that is, after I get some sleep. I've been up since noon on Sunday.)

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