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On the afternoon of Tuesday, 12 August, the home in Springfield we
were in in the process of moving out of was burglarized. Four people
pulled up with a truck and trailer, completely emptying the house. We
had moved many of our possessions out of that house but still had a
couple of loads to move. The thieves took the washer and dryer, small
appliances, cooking utensils, cast iron pots and pans, clothing, food,
tools, antiques, books and some craft supplies.
We have probably suffered well in excess of $3,000 in losses. The
thieves also took bank records and unused checks. We do not believe
that business records or customer information was exposed as they had
all been removed from that location the previous week. We have closed
all of our accounts, however, and that may complicate PayPal
processing over the next two weeks.
The incident was witnessed by neighbors who were told that the
thieves were authorized by the 417 Rentals to clean out the
house. We have not been able to confirm or deny that the thieves had
any official connection to 417 Rentals and the police are
investigating this as a burglary.
This has been a shocking experience, but, personally and as a
business, we are doing OK. The losses are insured. The loss of
household items and clothing will make things difficult until the
insurance catches up. Some of the items were passed down from our
families or were unusual antiques which cannot be replaced at any
cost. Having to change all of our accounts, lock down our credit and
worry about identity theft is stressful. We had taken steps to protect
our electronic information from theft and shredded our sensitive trash
on a regular basis, but it is difficult to plan against someone simply
stealing all of your paper files.
We still intend to have the party on Saturday, 16 August, although it
will be much lower key than intended. We need the time and space to
kick back for a little bit and think about the many things still worth
celebrating. This incident has delayed work on our plumbing, so the
water to the house may be shut off for part of Saturday (outgoing
water to sewage will be functioning fine and we will have plenty of
clean water on site), so anyone who will be bothered by this should
probably not come; we will understand.
As a result of the burglary and an incident earlier where our phone
lines were cut by a contractor (it has been a long week...), we are
now switched over completely to the new address and phone number (see
our contact
page). Looking to the bright side, we no longer need help moving
the last of our things from Springfield... :-)
One lesson that should be taken away from this: if you see something
suspicious in your neighborhood, call the police. If the people have
a legitimate reason to be doing what they are doing, then they can explain
that to the police. If not, you may have just saved your neighbor a lot of
trouble. I had it drilled into me during security training at the Pentagon in
an earlier career, that cons, spies, and thieves always have a plausible
explanation if you do not challenge it too much. People are afraid of
confrontation and will usually avoid things like asking for identification or
calling security, but the thieves know this and will take advantage of you if
you let them. In our case, we had good neighbors who were suspicious of what
was going on but the thieves put them off with almost plausible answers long
enough to get away. If you don't understand what is going on, it is worth
delaying things (by calling the police or taking time to call your neighbor)
until you are satisfied that things are OK.
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