As many of you know, my daughter Christy (Dakota's Mommy who almost never posts anymore) and her 3 kids and 3 dogs have been living with us since her husband when to Iraq in Sept. Every few weeks either Carl, her and the kids and just she and the kids go back to Cincinnati (a three hr trip from here) to check on the house. Today she and the kids went down for the rest of the weekend. She always calls to tell us they arrived safely but when she called today, she said, "can I talk to Dad?" which in my house when one of the kids says that first thing means something is wrong.
The guest bedroom which is at the back of the house has a sliding glass door into the back yard. I am not really sure of the reason for this because the yard is not that great and certainly not that big and the door into the yard is just around the corner. Anyway someone had smashed the door and come in. She had already called the police and her real estate agent (the house was supposed to be shown today). In looking around the only thing she found missing was Brian's stereo.
When the police came they said a gang of kids in the neighborhood have been breaking and entering houses that look vacated. They did it mostly to have a place to hang out. But sometimes they trashed the inside. Thankfully they did not do that. She had left the information about her house insurance here so she was not able to contact her agent (Carl took the information to her when he went down a little while ago.) She had called a friend of Brians who is still recruiting down there and he came over. She told the police that Brian was in Iraq and she had no idea what to do about it. They called home depot and got them to cut a piece of plywood big enough to cover it. She had driven the truck so Matt was going to go get it. They were only going to spend the night but of course, she couldn't stay there alone so Carl went down.
She is very lucky that more wasn't taken or more damage wasn't done. The police said they thought it have happend in the last few days because there was no moisture damage (Cincy has been having rain and snow the last week). Of course, she feels very violated and I doubt if she ever goes back down alone again. I know real estate is not moving very well right now but I have thought for a long time that she needed to change companies. I just wish it would sell and we wouldn't have to worry about it all the time.
Oh another thing they had put a 3 foot chain link fence around the yard for the dogs when they moved in in 2005. She had the gates locked so whoever broke in had to jump the fence. Her back yard is not that big and is on the corner so to be honest I don't know how the neighbors hadn't seen the damage to the doors.
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