Burgled... part deux Swan's End got burgled today. I'm getting to be an old hand at this, since I've been burgled before.

→[More:]I had been planning all week to spend my Saturday afternoon making curtains and upholstering the headboard for the bedroom I'm renovating. But when I got out my curtain/upholstery fabric early this afternoon and compared it to the other things I have for the room, I decided it really didn't go with the duvet cover and bedskirt after all. It was only an inexpensive fabric I thought I could use for something else, so I decided to go fabric shopping.

I was gone for four hours, from about 2:15 to 6:15. Upon my return I let myself into the house through the front door. The first thing I noticed was that there was a light on in the addition behind the kitchen — it's an area I call the "back kitchen". I never leave lights on, but thought I might have just this once.

So, after taking off my jacket and hanging it up and taking off my shoes, I walked down the hall and through the kitchen (where Trilby was sitting on the kitchen table looking pensive) to the rear of the house to turn off the light. And found that the interior door that leads to my part of the house was ripped off one hinge and had the lower half broken off it, also that the back door stood open.

I stood still and listened, and heard nothing. Knowing it can take the police ages to get to your place to file the report, I got out the phone book and looked up the non-emergency police number before doing anything else. I called the police and was, I thought, almost admirably calm and collected. Though when asked for my phone number I did spell my last name for the second time.

After getting off the phone I walked through the house to see what had been disturbed or taken. I found that the thieves had smashed through a basement window with a rock (or so I deduced from the rock lying on the floor), gone through the basement apartment which is unrented because I still haven't quite finished the renos, and then wrenched the door to the upper unit from its hinges to access the upper floors.

Whoever did it must have been quick. When my condo was burgled the thieves or thief ransacked the place. Cabinet doors and drawers were left open, the lid to my cedar chest was raised. Even the lids of my kitchen cannisters were left off. This time they didn't seem to have searched through anything. Nothing was disturbed. I walked around looking to see what was missing.

My computer, scanner, sewing machine, my DVD player, my cordless drill, my CDs and what medications I have were all in their places. Just one thing was missing: my jewelry box. And of course, all the jewelry in it.

Last time they left me the box and a few pieces. And I had worn my gold Bulova watch and signet ring that my dad gave me for my sixteenth birthday to work that day so they were safe. This time I had not been wearing any jewelry whatsoever, and it was all gone. My signet ring. Both my watches. My silver necklace with the little silver rose on it that I've had since I was thirteen. The gold necklace I bought the day after I was robbed the last time to make myself feel better about having been robbed. My silver locket that I got for my eighth grade graduation present from my parents. All the jewelry I'd bought over the last four years. The peridot ring I'd bought a month or so ago and hadn't worn yet. The lovely Monet pieces I enjoyed wearing so much. A number of thrift shop pieces I loved. I'll never be able to replace any of it because jewelry designers don't keep making the same pieces over and over, but release new collections reguarly just like clothing designers do.

The only other thing that was gone was one of the enviro grocery shopping bags I'd had hanging in the pantry closet. At least these were environmentally conscious thieves. It dawned on me that I had reason to be thankful that Trilby is not the least bit interested in going outside. He could have gone right out the door anytime he wanted to and run away or been hit by a car.

I called my mother while I waited for the cops to get here. I was hungry so I ate Mediterranean squid salad and peanut butter cookies while we talked. My niece Peaches Swan is staying with my parents for the week while my brother and his wife are away on business trip, so I talked to her. Not wanting to upset her, I only talked to her about her possibly coming to stay with my next month (she's applied to the Ontario Parliament Legislative Page progam) and how I'm working to get the back bedroom ready for her and how we can go to a performance of Swan Lake at the National Ballet of Canada while she's staying with me.

Then, once off the phone, I just waited, impatient for the cops to get there so I could get on with my evening.

It took them about an hour to get there. As I let them in I told them I'd been robbed before so I knew the drill, and also that the place might look messed up, but that was because I'm doing renovations, not because the thieves trashed the place. I showed them the broken window and door and told them about the jewelry box. The one guy looked out back for footprints, photgraphed everything, and dusted the window and the broken door for fingerprints. He found none.

The other guy took my statement, which involved him asking for my birthdate, and reconfirming the address and asking when I left the house, when I'd come back, and how I'd discovered I'd been robbed, what I'd done then, etc. He gave me his card so I could email him a list of the jewelry that had been stolen.

I was pessimistic as to their chances of arresting the thief or thieves, but they assured me they often do arrest burglars, usually for doing multiple burglaries. But people don't usually get their stuff back as the thieves don't have it anymore by the time they are arrested. Fortunately this time I have contents insurance, instead of just structural insurance as I did at the condo. I'll have money to go jewelry shopping again as well as to repair the door and window.

So that's the story. Let us hope there is never a "Burgled, part trois". I don't need to become blasé about this.