Lightning has struck me twice

They say lightning never strikes the same place twice. This may be true, but it seems to hit some people over and over.

So, here's the story: I was robbed, twice. Now, technically it was theft and residential burglary, but it sounds much cooler to say, "I was robbed." The first incident occurred on October 9th, 2007. My credits cards and license was stolen out of my wallet; and on January 11th, 2008 my apartment was broken into.

I'm willing to say that the first one was/is more or less my fault. I was in the bad habit of leaving my wallet unattended on my desk at work. (The ironic part of the story is that I work at a security solutions firm) Someone took my credit cards, bank card, and driver license (those unconscionable bastards) and went on a $6,000 shopping spree. The great thing is, is that because I didn't make the purchases Best Buy, Staple, Target, et al got stuck foot the bill. No even a smudge on my credit record.

The break in is much worse. I lock my doors, lock my windows (it is winter, after all), and I even keep a light on. The jerks; however, know that most of the people at my apartment complex work during the day. When I got home, after muttering to my self about some bills I got in the mail I think to my self, "Ah, at least I'll be able to watch Friday Night Lights tonight." Imagine my surprise when I look up to my TV and the only thing looking back at me is the mounting place for the wall mount unit for my flat screen (I used 4 big wood screws to sink that bad boy to the studs.) It was almost as if it were mocking me, saying, "The worthless metal plate is all that is left, bucko."

After the brief second of confusion (Where is the TV) the most terrible thought hit me: I've been robbed. Panicking, I looked down, yup, Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and assorted controllers gone. Shit! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, my laptops gone. Why is the receiver still there? I step over to the "sun room" in my apartment: why didn't they take the desktop and the printer? Why are the non-hooked up surround speakers gone, but the hooked up one still there? My old Blackberries are gone, but my XM radio is there. A HP iPAQ PDA is gone, who uses those anymore, anyway? My Blu-ray movies are gone? ASSHOLES! The Dyson Vacuum cleaners is still there? You know what, being robbed is bad enough, being robbed by lazy burglars is just salt in the wound.

I would like to say that is where the story ends, but there is still the insurance bit. Well, I had to turn in a list of all the things that were taken. Fair enough. I have to put the approximate age of the items. Interesting, but okay. The items are going to be depreciated: okay, that seems fair, I got 2 years worth of service out of my flat screen so I can complain. The cost basis for the deprecation is not going to be the price I purchased the items for, but the current replacement cost. Gahhh, leave to State Farm to kick me while I'm down.

Well, in closing, I'm taking anything that might be of even the slightest value out of my truck; cause knowing my luck, I'm going to get hit a third time.

Later,

B