Dec 17, 2007

How'd you get in Here?

Last Monday I stepped out of the house at 9:48am. I'm that sure about it because I was expecting my plumber to show soon after 10, but I needed to run to the hardware store for a floodlight bulb. No problem I said to myself.
Went to Stanly's hardware, then stopped for a coffee to go at the Set Table. Back at 10:30.
My front door has two locks. I always bolt the top bolt-lock if I'm going anywhere, and the bottom knob-lock usually gets the key too. When I got back I noticed that only the handle was locked. That didn't seem right, but I gave myself the benefit of the mistake and walked back to the kitchen to get some maple syrup for the coffee.
I noticed on the kitchen floor two or three pieces of mud and a leaf from the tread of a shoe. If you saw the house right now you might have wondered how I could distinguish one piece of dirt from another, but these seemed out of place. I looked at my soles, recognized I had been digging sewer pipe out in the basement and assumed it was from me.
Walking up to the cluttered kitchen counter I set my coffee down then looked right to see my kitchen window open.
Panic!
I knew that wasn't right. It's 30 degrees outside and I never open that window. First reaction was to run to the front room to see if my new mountain bike was there. I had brought it home from the shop the night before, freshly polished, tuned and ready to ride.
Gone!
A quick look around revealed blank holes where my compressor, nail gun and other power tools had been. I ran upstairs to my bed room to find a big hole in the plastic door, and inside was one less Laptop, camera and printer. Still left down stairs was my cross bike with the new PowerTap wheel in it. Unlocked.
Ran to the back yard, realized they took to much stuff to go out the back. Went to the front, asked the guys working on the street if they saw anything. "nope" with heads shaking. Called 911.
Talked to neighbor, Leon. He says he saw a white work truck pull up onto the curb 5 min after I left, but assumed them to be some of the people working on my house. His sone even said hi to one of the guys. Their descriptions didn't match any of my workers. So I waited for the police.
tbc

18 comments:

Jeff Kerkove said...

That totally sucks. People that do that kind of stuff need to be kicked in the teeth!

fxdwhl said...

Wow man, that really sucks. Hope the tbc takes a turn for the better.

Lenore said...

:( I'm still up for a pawn shop alleycat.

Chris said...

crap...that's terrible!
you have insurance, right?

Anonymous said...

Sooo sorry to hear that!
Hope we can help you out; and I hope they catch them.

Anonymous said...

hey that sucks. I just had that same thing happen over thanksgiving. didn't get much but it makes you feel really shitty.

Anonymous said...

Shit the bed. Hopefully you get your stuff back.

Tractor said...

Come on home and grab the paragon if you need it.

kelly said...

It sounds to me like someone was casing your place. What's the chance they'd pull up to your house minutes after you left? I had my car stolen a couple of times and it's devastating; the violation goes way beyond just losing a position. And being a rider I know how important my bikes are to me.

Please include a full description of the bike/pictures, and we can put the word out to search eBay, Craig's List, etc., and hopefully let some of the LBSs know.

Anonymous said...

Fucking savages. As my better half said, steal from the rich, not from Harlan.

You can still borrow Loda if you'd like. Same goes for my '99 vintage team bike.

samantha said...

Yes, you can borrow Loda... and I'm not just saying that because she had to go out last night at 3am. She would scare most thugs more than they would scare her.

Also, I've got some camera stuff you can borrow.

I'm really sorry this happened... I had nightmares about it after you left last week.

Danielle Musto said...

Lets find those SOB's and kick their butts!!!

Let us know if you need anything Harlan. That totally sucks.

spokejunky said...

Man that sucks. Any help Harlan fund?

Don't turn into this guy

Anonymous said...

I'm very sad now.
Sorry to hear about this Harlan.

I Hope it is a distant memory soon.

beenjamin said...

i am so sorry to hear about your misfortune bro. im sending you some white light. may your bandits fall off cliffs and die on impact!

Matt Miller said...

balls, son

as a detective: your laptop was stolen, yet the blog was updated...

i'm guessing you got it all back

Jake said...

Well that blows. If you find the culprits I recommend getting a group of your cyclist friends together and flogging them with rusty seatposts. I will be happy to attend... stealing bikes is a no-no...

PuroMTB said...

men i'm so sorry to hear that happened to you. im Anthony from Costa Rica, Reuben's friend.

Sorry again and keep forward. Hope you can get back your thinks.

Next time you come to Costa Rica dont forget to let me know i'll show you some good trials.

and dont worry i'll find you a bike here!!! :D kidding!