Rude Awakening

This morning at 5 am there was loud knocking at the door and the dog was barking. I woke Dan up and he heard the really loud knocking again. He went to the door and it was the police! Nothing gets your heart racing like waking up to the police at your front door. The officer said our neighbor had called because our garage door was open and he wanted Dan to look and see if anything was missing.

It was. About $4500 worth of equipment was stolen while we slept! And our dogs, who bark like crazy anytime anyone comes to the door, didn't make a peep. They stole three of our bikes, worth more than $3000, our new bike trailer to tow the kids that we used once, my snowboard and boots which I used for the first time yesterday, and Dan's snowboard and boots. At first we thought we left the garage open after we unloaded our snowboards yesterday, but then we remembered Dan took the trashcans to the street right before bed and he would have noticed it was open. They got in by breaking the glass on our garage door, and then reaching in to grab the release and rolled up the door. That is pretty bold! And they must have been prepared because three bikes, the trailer, and two snowboards would take up a lot of room and required multiple people or lots of trips. Someone is coming later today to check for prints on the door, but I can't imagine you wouldn't wear gloves if you're going to stick your hand through a broken window. The best we can figure is it happened sometime between about 12:30 when we went to bed and 3:30 when our neighbor first noticed the garage was open (no idea what he was doing awake at 3:30, but we appreciate his diligence in looking out for the neighborhood).

As much as it sucks to have our things stolen, it's just stuff. What really bothers me is the feeling that we are not safe. We are lucky that we were only dealing with thieves, because it would have been so easy for them to walk through the door to the house and come inside where my babies were sleeping. That is scary. And of course, they broke in through the only door on our entire house that is not alarmed! So I'm going to call the alarm company today and see if we can put a sensor on the garage door. I also want to get a deadbolt for the door from the garage to the house. And we have to replace the glass on the exterior door so they can't just come back again tonight for more stuff. Luckily the car was untouched, but it was unlocked so I'll make it a habit of locking the car even when it's in the garage.

Anyway, this morning I'm thanking God that we are all safe and everything that was stolen is replaceable.

You can see the broken glass and the release that they used to open the door

Our empty wall of fun: trailer hung from the hook on the far left, bikes from the three hooks in the middle, and snowboards on the sets of hooks on the right.

Us and our bikes in happier times