burgled in sea point. who? me!!!

Lisa fetched me from Cape Town airport, and we chatted on the way back to my place. i was hungry and she told me that she had brought some rolls and cold meats with so i was looking forward to getting back to my apartment and having a picnic meal.

i stay on the 5th floor of an apartment block – the top floor, so we caught the lift up.

it’s a short walk to my flat from the lift, as there are only 4 flats on each floor, and about 2/3 of the way i realised there was something not quite right.

my gate was open. and MY door was open!!!!

there was glass everywhere.

i left my luggage bag outside, and cautiously walked inside. there was no-one inside.

but my place had been turned upside down. my tv stand was in the middle of my lounge, and the first thing i noticed was that my dvd player and speakers from my surround were gone.

the second thing that went through my mind was that my fax machine and a couple of other electronic gadgets (the router and wireless router – don’t ask me why, but i have 2 seperate pieces) were still sitting on the table in the lounge.

i went into the bedroom, and all my cupboards had been emptied – my clothes were all over the floor. and there was a big blue bag in the middle of the room which was fill – i didn’t want to touch anything as one of the first things i thought about were fingerprints. but i could peer into the bag without touching it – it was filled with my clothes. it looked like the people who decided my casa was there casa, had had to leave in a hurry.

anyway, after looking around for a few minutes, we decided that food was still important to hungry people, so lisa made some rolls, and i got on the phone to speak to the body corporate, the landlord, the police, & my folks.

24 hours later, i’m still kicking myself that i hadn’t set up my home insurance which had been on my to-do list for months.

so some lucky people around cape town now have the following kewl new toys:

sony home theatre system (have to be grateful though – they left my TV and DSTV)

my old PDA cell phone

the landlords stereo system (i don’t think my landlord has insurance on the furniture they have in the flat – so landlords – get insurance on any items you leave in the flat)

my 17″ LCD which i use as a 2nd screen for my laptop

a watch that a medical rep gave my dad, and which i’ve never looked at

one of my squash shoes (and no jokes – i was planning to start playing squash again!!!! they left my mountain bike though, so guess that will be my sport of choice till i find a sports shop that sells single squash shoes)

ALL of these can be replaced, so it’s a loss but not a trainsmash.

BUT….(of course there has to be one!)

they took my external hard drive as well!!!

it was meant to be a back up for my laptop, but as the drive is 250 gig and my laptop is 40 gig, and i had about 20 gig of photo’s on my laptop taken over the last few years, i decided to leave the photo’s on the external hard drive only. while i was away a few weeks ago, i was thinking about back up’s and decided that i would solve the solution of backing up the photos’ (everything else was backed up), by buying a IPOD Video, and having the photo’s on the IPOD video and the external hard drive.

i didn’t get a chance to buy it, so asked my mate Vinny (here’s your plug Vin – go check out everything about search marketing at www.VinnyLingham.com) to buy one for me as he is in the US at the moment. And he let me know last night that he had bought it! What coincidence! the same day i get the back up computer for my photo’s, all my photos’ get stolen!!!! you have to marvel at coincidences like that.

HOW DID THEY GET IN?

we’ve had painters making our apartment block look extra good over the last few weeks, and people always say that when you have external contracters in your apartment block, situations like this arise. There could be many reasons for this, so i won’t go into my thoughts about that now, as that could take hours!

Anyway, this was the 2nd situation in our block this week, as a garage got broken into a few days back.

So someone came up to my apartment on the 5th floor, pulled the gate socket out of the wall (apparently it’s quite easy if you know how to do it), smashed the bottom glass panel in my door (i’ve got 3 glass panels in my door), and slid through it. Then because I don’t double lock the door, (let me rephrase – i didn’t double lock – I DO NOW), they simply opened the door from the inside and walked out with my stuff.

CLEANING UP?

The cops arrived an hour later to take a statement and the fingerprint guy found a couple prints of a “small person” (apparently you can tell based on the size of the prints – AND THEY FOUND 2 on speakers they left behind). Then the inspector had a chat with me, and i said i’d drop off a list of the serial numbers of the items so if they catch anyone running around with a single squash shoe, they can match it to the other one. (ADDED: have spent time finding details of the serial numbers for the various items – it would be far easier to keep a list of all electronic items in your place, and serial numbers for each one – GO DO IT NOW – big talker i am – it’s now been 48 hours, and i still haven’t organised my home insurance!!!)

while the police were here, my gate was fixed and the part that was pulled out was bolted back in – but much stronger this time. the glass panel was replaced 3 hours after i first saw it. (i’m still going to think seriously about getting a MUCH stronger gate). As soon as the fingerprint guy was gone, i straightened the lounge out, threw the clothing back in the cupboard, and an hour later, it was as if nothing had happened…

…so i thought i’d relax and watch a DVD

COMMENTS:

most of the comments were sympathetic – “good to hear you weren’t hurt, items can be replaced” etc… Vin’s comment was legendary when i mentioned i’d been robbed and had lost my photo’s – “don’t you use Flickr! how on earth could you leave the photo’s on a hard drive in your place!” – well, it wasn’t worded exactly like that, but that was the gist of it – THANKS FOR THE SYMPATHY BUDDY.

Apparently another friend of a friend was held up yesterday evening and their new car was taken – but luckily they weren’t hurt!

This is an amazing city. But it’s not going to be an amazing city for long if this carry’s on, as it really feels like crime is getting worse here!!!