I was robbed this morning.

When DH left for work this morning, I forgot to lock the front door. While I was giving the birds their showers, someone came in and stole my laptop. I was lucky. I'll be scarce for a while - have to restore files to an old laptop. I use Carbonite for online storage, luckily, so all my data was backed up.

Please keep your doors locked!

I can't believe that!! Anytime we're outside I lock the doors because we may not keep an eye on the house, but I don't worry about it if I'm inside.....I'm so pleased that we have the property fenced and gated now. Do you suppose it could be one of the people who 'walk' 76? Or someone close by? I mean...your house does not seem likely to get hit like that.....

Kathleen, you know I already commented on FB but I wanted to ask a question. Have you had people coming to your door for advertising lately? Maybe that noticed the laptop close by the front door and figured they could just pop in and grab it. I also think maybe someone has been casing your place cause how would they know you didn't have a pitbull or Dobie waiting to eat them. lol
I am really feeling bad for you tonight. So sorry this has happened to you.

So sorry to hear that Kathleen! I'm also suspicious of door to door salespeople--we had some in my neighborhood a bit over a year ago who were going door to door pretending to be vacuum salesman, but I am pretty sure they were just casing houses to see who had good stuff to steal. One day shortly after I'd seen them in the neighborhood, someone broke into my neighbor's house and stole a gun out of their gun safe (which they had left unlocked along with their front door). I don't have any proof, but I am convinced it was the same people who'd been going around door to door.

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you! I hope you are not too traumatized by it. I'm glad you had your files backed up. Sometimes getting life back to normal is harder than dealing with what was taken.

I'm concerned about people that go door-to-door these days too. The ones that really bother me are the people "selling" alarm systems. When a stranger's first question to you is "do you have an alarm system" I get nervous.

So sorry to hear this Kathleen :(
Thank God you didn't walk in on them. No telling what could have happened...
People are as bold as brass anymore.

Dang, Kathleen! And here I was feeling sorry for myself over a sackful of malware having hit my laptop last week when I left it online one day while I was at work.

Salespeople? I had someone stop today to schedule an appointment with me to look into new windows. I stood out front with him to talk. I almost never invite a stranger into my house. As a matter of fact, as out of control as my housekeeping has been since my cancer treatment in 2004, I don't have many friends inside either. We do summer patio dinners, LOL.

I'm so sorry you are suffering the fallout from this loss.

Linda

KC,
That totally sucks. It's hard to trust anyone these days.
DH and I have a policy which works well for us, we don't allow salespeople into our home. Even then they have to get through the dogs, who will lick them to death, then they have to get through the kids, who won't. And then they have to get through my eagle eye girlfriend who has a very sharp tongue.
We won't even talk to them on the phone, unless we called them.
Be careful, when times get tough, the theft rates go up.
Someone broke into my little gift shop during December and helped themselves to a bunch of my stuff. Stole both of DH's chain saws. One of our worker's found the newer one out in the field. I wouldn't have minded so much but the creep went and broke out the window to get in, and the camera isn't much good unless it's hooked up to a vcr. Rats! Star!
Then they broke the locked glass display doors. I don't know when we'll get those fixed.
I am so glad you have everything backed up.
I am thinking of looking into carbonite, as another back up. The external hard drive was backed up yesterday. I have to get a new power cord, am borrowing my nephew's wife's right now and have to give it back. I'm going down to Radio Shack to get one. My next lap top will be a Mac!
~Hugs~
WIB!
SW

Kathleen I am sorry to hear this happened to you. I am thankful you are ok.

Wow, you need to trade your birds for dogs. Our three scare even the people we want to visit us and they certainly terrify repair and delivery guys. Only the little chihuahua has every bitten anyone and she can only reach your ankle, but the mid size 45# girl scares most of them. Since we are kind of down and off the beaten path on a street with no street sign we usually only the invited and lost. Have never seen either a salesperson or trick or treater in 5 years!

We just started with Carbonite as we learned the external hard drives (Lacie and Apple) just keep making new copies, not overlays, until the memory is filled up.

Scary stuff, hope you are doing better. Even as quick as they must have been in and out, I am guessing it is creepy to feel invaded.

Take Care. Lynda

Aaah, yes, Lynda, it IS a creepy feeling to have your space invaded in such a manner. I was burglarized in 1990-something. Someone(s) came in one Friday evening while I worked my second shift of the day, a 6-hour shift ER shift. Upon my arrival home at 1 a.m. I found my Springer Spaniel hovering in the garage when I opened it to drive in. She wouldn't come to me. The garage sits behind a driveway gate, which was only loosely bolted. Anyway, apparently someone(s) drove into the driveway, parked and broke into the bathroom, spending a significant amount of time wandering about the house. Police hypothesized that the perpetrators knew me and my schedule, likely a patient in one of the treatment programs at which I worked, who had followed me home and observed my schedule and such. It was a $12,000 loss, including a plastic enveloped box of my childhood toys from high up in the garage. That one made me chuckle as I pouted. Clearly they didn't open the box, just assumed such protection surrounded "value." The only thing they didn't take, sadly, was my aging 2-ft high stack of chrome finished stereo system. They stripped me clean!

It was years before I was able to regain ownership of my home. Years!

Take care of yourself, Kathleen. Snuggle with any and all any protective loving pets. You all deserve it.

Linda

Thanks, Linda. I actually felt worse over the weekend and finally talked it out with DH this morning. Now that I've said it, maybe I can get over being scared sooner. I'm jumpy and afraid I will forget to lock the door again. Wish I had time to spend with my pottery today, but the chores have piled up, so that will have to wait for a while. Time will help, I think.

Kathleen, - I don't mean to change the subject, but since you mentioned it: are you happy with Carbonite? I've been shopping for external hard drives but it sounds like Carbonite might be a better option.

Not really changing the subject, GardenSox, just another component. :-) Yes, I like Carbonite. They have a two week trial, which I took, and it works pretty seamlessly. I renewed my subscription recently. They have a referral program, so send me your email address in a dmail - maybe we'll both get a free month or something. That's the other thing, I got three months free for renewing early - I like companies that offer bonuses like that to keep customers.

BTW, we also have an external hard drive. :-)

D-mail sent. Thanks, Kathleen!

-Chad