Stolen Firearms Part II

I've received comments suggesting that, considering the ease with which the burglars managed to enter my home WHILE I WAS THERE, I need to establish more stringent security measures.


I've begun hooking the chain on the front door, besides ensuring that both locks are locked.
(My landlord assures me that only he and I have keys to the lock ... which confirms that I didn't make that extra check on Wednesday night.   My bad.)

.  I've received permission from the landlord to change the locks on the door.   In the meantime, I'm leaving the interior lights on 24/7 to dissuade return visits.   Unfortunately I'm a sound sleeper, but I reconfirm that all doors and windows are locked before I go to bed.

I know ... locking the barn door after the horses have been stolen.   All I can do is all I can do.

I don't have much ... a little cash and some old credit cards ... I've called my credit card vendors requesting that my old cards be cancelled and new cards sent to me via mail. All firearms are either locked in the safe or by my side. 

The thing is, I don't go out much.  Mostly, just a trip to the grocery store once a week, and the house is locked up then, too.

The burglars left long guns which were laying in the open (I was writing down the serial numbers to confirm my records, and went to bed before securing them .. this one night, only!)

I've been laboring under the delusion that I just "tucked them away someplace" when I went to bed, but I've now confirmed that the firearms are no longer resident here.

Now that I'm certain that it wasn't just a matter of forgetting where I put them, I'll be getting the police involved.  I should have done that immediately, but I tend to be forgetful and I needed to check the whole house.

I've done that; they're gone.

So now I have to enter a claim to my insurance company.

Unfortunately, they also found my wallet with all my credit cards, so I've been contacting card issuers to shut off the cards (no purchases have been made as of today) and request new credit cards be issued via mail.   I still have cards issued from local stores, so I'll visit them to request the old cards be cancelled and new cards issued.    They also got away with the $80 cash that was in my wallet.

This is a traumatic experience for me.    I've had trouble sleeping, I have no appetite.  It's not just  that I've discovered how vulnerable I am to theft, but that someone in this neighborhood knows that I have valuables worth stealing, and they were so comfortable with their thievery.

The only good news is that they missed the valuable competition guns (in the safe) .. it was a "Smash And grab" ... just took the handguns, which they could conceal in a bag, and then they split.  I'm concerned that they seem to have either taken the time to search the downstairs (I don't THINK they cam upstairs, where I sleep), or they were familiar with the layout.  That suggests that they have been inside my home before.  Both of those theories give me no rest.

So I'll spend another sleepless night.   And we'll see what kind of help the police can provide when I finally am able to identify all the firearms by serial numbers ... which I should have recorded LONG AGO!