Around 3 am on Monday morning, we were burgled. We were home at the time, which is really the scary part. I heard them and talked myself out of the fact that were indeed people in the house.
In the morning, we awoke to find that they had precariously balanced one of our lawn chairs on the back steps leading up to the kitchen, slit the screen, and hoisted themselves into the house.
While in the house, they turned on the kitchen light to see better, and then helped themselves to my gym bag, tennis shoes, work out watch, iPod shuffle, computer, and purse and Will's computer, phone, watch, wallet, and keys. They even took the power supplies to both laptops and the phone.So, on Monday morning, we had our very own episode of CSI in our kitchen, fingerprinting, detectives, and all.
We have made a claim with our insurance, alerted the banks and card companies, and replaced the locks (plus a few other home security measures that I cannot share with you). Oh, and we are getting a dog.
Today we attempted to replace our stolen IDs. No go. Though it says on the DC DMV web site that you only need one form of alternative ID, you need two and the police report. We learned this after standing in line for an hour. And, of course, one of the IDs accepted is a social security card, which Will cannot find at the moment.
Instead of going to the social security office because we had much to get done today and wasting more time in government offices was not how we need to spend the rest of the day, we went to get Will a new wallet (ohh brown leatha) and then to the our hardware store to get keys made.
There was a lady in front of me, demanding her keys--3 sets of 3-- to be made not by a trainee because her keys were of state importance. She was really quite rude. I was then next, and I presented my 4 keys to be made with 5 copies each. I stepped aside because 20 keys takes a while, and a long line was forming. Plus Will and I had to check out the other security items we might need to add on to our house.
20 minutes later, I watch them give the rude lady bags of keys. I think that something is odd, but also think that the hardware store has it under control. But, since this never happens, it did for us:
They gave the rude lady our keys!
She had paid and left the store, complaining that she only asked for three copies of the keys and she wasn't going to pay for the extra keys at all. When her keys were ready and were presented to me, I laughed, explaining the situation: the hardware store switched the keys. And par for the course, the keymaker had given the lady the copies and the originals, thereby leaving Will and I stranded since we now had no keys to get into our house. The store manager was really upset that it has happened, but Will and I just laughed, because at this point, what else could happen?
We went to the Whole Foods, got sandwiches, and then went back to the hardware store to wait for her return, having a picnic on the really nice outdoor teak furniture they have on sale at the moment. An hour and half later, she calls to say that the keys don't work and she will be back in 20 minutes to get her true keys. And man,was she is pissy about the whole situation. She returned, we exchanged. She got her keys, we got ours.
We went home and made key rings with the new keys.
At this point, I am hoping that the rain clouds disperse and move on. That is three things that went wrong, yes? We are in the clear now?
Geez, I better go check the weather for tomorrow....
