I have been the victim of a few crimes lately and it has really set me back.
Long story...but worth the read.
First Crime:
I got called by my credit card company about 1-1/2 weeks ago saying that their was suspicious activity on my Buildlog.net credit card. Someone in the UK was going on a spree with my CC number. They intercepted the charges, so no harm done and they would send me a new card. The card took about 6 days to get to me. I use that card to make most of my on-line purchases, so I was on-hold for places like McMaster Carr and even shipping from UPS and USPS. Automatic billing was screwed from my ISP and even a Kickstarted project I sponsored got rejected. That one was annoying and embarrassing. I have some backup plans in place now, but it means a lot of extra accounting.
Second Crime.
My wife called me at work (the day job) about 10 days ago and said the window was busted out of the shop. I had walked past that window that morning and did not see anything. I got home that night to find that my tool chest, compressor and MIG welder were stolen. The tool chest had a ton of tools like my calipers and gauges, wrenches, etc. I was very depressed and didn't even bother to call the police or insurance. I did not want to re-live the crime and get no results anyway. Every time I reach for a tool I realized another one was in the chest like the staple gun. I did not want to go buy them all back at once so it meant a new trip to the hardware store a couple times a day.
Today my neighbor called and said the police stopped by her house to ask if she had been robbed. She said no, but had heard I had. The detective left his card. I called him. He said he had a guy in custody who may have robbed me.
About two weeks ago a guy broke into a house and started loading all the booty out on the sidewalk to be picked up by his girlfriend in his SUV. The owner caught the guy getting ready to load up the car and he fled. The police caught him right away, but were unable to charge him with a crime because he was not in possession of any stolen items. Everyone new it was him, so the police were pissed off they had to let him go. He also had a warrant for robbery in Minnesota and had done eight stints in jail for robbery before.
A week later they caught the same guy driving around the same car and looking into houses and garages. He was with his girlfriend and they had some drug paraphernalia with them. They questioned them for several hours and the girlfriend caved and told about all the crimes. One of the crimes was my house. She was off by one address so they went to the neighbor first. She even described every item that was stolen. She called the MIG welded a pressure washer??
So great...They got the guy and I get my stuff...right. Not so fast. The guy had already sold everything. Again, they could not charge him with anything without any property evidence. The girlfriend told the police that he had sold the items to a unknown landscaper. She said he had called the landscaper using his cell phone.
The crook did not know the girlfriend had rolled on him yet, so he thought he was going to get off. The police tricked him into letting them look at his phone. They found the landscapers number, called him and scared the crap out of him. He said he still had everything and brought it by the police station. I just got back from identifying all my stuff. I am not sure everything is still in the toolbox, but I am pretty happy. I should get all my stuff back this week. The guy is charged and in jail right now.
Stealing a man's tools is the lowest form of crime. It is like a horse thief of the old west....no lower form of life.