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I could get to like this "Internet" thing.

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Last Thursday, when Daniel was at his music lesson, I got an email from a friend of ours.  We have a vacation home in the San Juan Islands (just north west of Seattle), and he was visiting his place on the island and looked in on our house.

He had noticed that the dining room set was missing and wanted to know if we knew anything about it.

Not surprisingly, we didn't, as soon as I saw that, I got that hideous feeling in the pit of my stomach that we'd been robbed.

I went up to the island on Saturday morning, spent the afternoon inventorying the things that were stolen and talking to the very nice policeman who came to take the police report.

One of his first questions was if we had pictures of the stuff that was stolen.  Of course we didn't (this is not at all surprising), but I was able to find a receipt for most of stolen items (this is actually pretty amazing if you know us).  But I still couldn't find a picture.

Until I got back home where I filled out the remaining forms.  Since I had the receipt, I had the manufacturers name and the model number for the items stolen.  I figured that it had been 8 years since we bought the stuff, so there was no chance I'd find it, but what the heck. 

I went to both MSN search and Google and between the two of them I somehow managed to find pictures from various furniture retailer's web sites.

The only item I couldn't find on the web was the dining room table (and 6 chairs).  I simply couldn't find any references to them and I didn't have the model number for them.  But eBay came to my rescue.  I searched on eBay and found someone who was selling the exact same table as was stolen (different fabric on the chairs but the same table).

Yipee!  I was able to fill the entire report complete with pictures from the web of almost all the items that were stolen.

Phew.

Now all I need to do is to deal with the insurance company (yuck).  And even better, I know people who are selling the stuff that was stolen so I can replace it.

Man, that "internet" can really come in handy.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    "I know people who are selling the stuff that was stolen"

    Tomorrow on Slashdot - Microsoft developer claims links with sellers of stolen furniture! :-)

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    Bummer about being robbed. That is never a good feeling.

    Gotta love the english language though. Your second last paragraph could be correct readly but misunderstood to be saying that you are scamming the insurance company because you know the people who actually stole the goods in the first place.

    I guess on the bright side, you get new gear for the house. :)

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    just make sure not to buy back your stolen items off eBay.

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    Rosyna: Why? I think it's really lucky to be able to buy back the origional items, especially when it also give a clue for the police to catch the thief!  :P

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    Hmm, I was told a couple months ago that it was weird to blog about our burglary:

    http://chilco.textdrive.com/~dmahugh/2006/02/04/rainier-beachs-finest/

    So ... you're weird, Larry.

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    I'm so sorry to hear that! Being burgled is one of those pit-of-the-stomach horrors.

    Where in the San Juans is your house? We used to vacation on Lopez, where our cousin was the school superintendent for a while. His mother lived in Friday Harbor (on San Juan).

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2006
    I was hoping for a neat story about how your motion activated web cam had emailed you video. Drat.

  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2006
    This just hit me. Someone stole your furniture from your home on an ISLAND.

    Either it's still on the island or someone on the ferry system will remember a large moving truck getting on the ferry. :)

    Maybe they are sophisticated and have their own boat?

  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2006
    Ummm, Scott's hits me too, but how can we take advantage of it?

    Someone stole my money from my home on an ISLAND.  And odds are, it's still on the island.  Time to start brainstorming ^_^

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