Well, I was very tired from a strenuous weekend of preparing the house for sale and getting my husband off to the “Red Eye” flight. My dog seemed to be barking incessently at the neighbors’ dogs (several acres away) who were answering.
Believe me, my blood ran cold when I realized the next day what had happened. We’d lived there 5 years (in this isolated location) with a garage that had no front and no side. Nothing had ever been touched. So, we didn’t think about leaving the garage window ajar to keep the newly painted window from sticking. This was in the Pacific Northwest where the weather assures that paint takes a long time to cure.
Probably I did the right thing, because the wrong thing would have been for me to fly out the back door and confront the thieves. I know exactly who did it because the “gas” they stole was diesel and their car was found, konked out on a logging road (gas powered engines don’t run long on diesel) not far from our house. For that matter, their fingerprints were pressed into the windowsill. But the cops weren’t interested. They just gave us a case number for our insurance claim and said that our tools were probably sold on the bar that very night at a local tavern!
As beautiful as that house and land were, I was glad to move.
I just can’t imagine how horrible that was.
The closest I’ve come to such a thing was finding out that copper theives had hit the neighbor’s barn and stolen a bunch of wire.
That barn-turned-shop/garage is pretty close to my house and it was chilling to think people like that could’ve come here, too.
By the next day, I had security cameras installed outside.
I agree that you did the right thing.
Who knows what ‘surprised’ thieves might have done to you.
It’s hard to say what I’d do myself in the same situation but staying inside with the dog and having a pistol in my hand seems like a good bet.
[I had to laugh about the car...serves them right!]
It amazes me that the cops did nothing.
They caught the copper thieves and jailed them.
Turns out they’d hit several houses along the pike and had even attempted the hit the guy’s machine shop across the road but he had locked doors, unlike the neighbor.
I’m not sure why they didn’t attempt our place since it’s known to be a welding/machine shop full of ‘good stuff’.
Maybe the nasty ‘warning signs’ we have posted out front or the Dobermann watching them through the window spooked them.
It was a very stressful couple of weeks for everyone in this area until they were nabbed, though.