The Homestead has Been Violated.....

Sad to say, the day before we moved out of our waterless, scorpion homestead, we were broken into. There is a very long story to it. I will keep it brief. Sorry I won't be including photos...they got the camera :(

We had found a new home in town and had arranged for Nikki to spend the night with friends so that we could take her room apart. We were very excited! Gary & I went into town to pay the deposit, sign the legal papers and then treated ourselves to a lovely late lunch with wine & delicious food. We picked up the rental truck and headed home. I was busy trying to talk Gary into going for a drive, we were childless and with vehicle, I wanted to enjoy a few minutes. Let me back track a little to say that we had been a little nervous as when we were away someone had cut the wires to our security lights and the landlord hadn't fixed them. We had some concern that we were being set up for a break in. We were moving our within the week of this. Back to the present, thankfully Gary over rode me on slipping off for a little fun and we went straight home.

As we approached the house, we noticed that the gate was open. We thought perhaps the landlord had opened it, then as I jumped back in the truck after closing them, I noticed a carving knife on the driveway....weird, I jumped back out to pick it up, it was one of ours! We then noticed my lipstick a little further up, then my heart stop as the realization set in, we had been broken in to in the middle of the day (it was about 5 pm). Thankfully this all took about 5 minutes, likely helping us to avoid a confrontation. We raced up the driveway in the truck (it's a long one) and saw ALL the gates around the house were open. We could then see through to the house, all the doors, all 3 were broken open and the front window screen was destroyed and the bars damaged from a crow bar. At this point we realised that our lives were worth more than anything in the house so we quickly locked all the doors and lay on the horn.

We called anyone we knew who knew English and some who spoke Spanish too so they could call the police & house owners. We waited until the first group of friends arrived (with Nikki as it was them she was staying with) before we entered the house. It was an awful experience. So violating. We had obviously disturbed them in the act as one of them, who had been sitting on our couch going through a suitcase, left his motor bike helmet as well as his sun glasses. We searched and discovered about $2000 worth of good had been taken (camera, ALL my jewelry, large screen TV, DVD player, IPod etc) they had been sitting on my bed, on my pillow sorting through our files, missing the lap top that I had hidden underneath. Thank goodness....that was the thing I worried most would be taken.

The police eventually arrived and were surprisingly quite good, they even finger printed the helmet and back door which had been rammed in with brute force despite the locks and bolts in place. We hired a security guard for the night as after much discussion it was decided it would be impossible to move early with a major festival in town shutting down the roads. It was also unsafe for us to stay there, the thieves had seen to that. EVERY door and lock on the house and surrounding fence had been destroyed. We finally fell to sleep late that night, grateful guests at our friends house who graciously set up air mattresses for us on their living room floor.

Opinion is that it was organized criminals with some money behind them who were likely planning on taking everything but we had returned home too soon. Our moving may have moved them to action early. We had obviously been being watched....creepy! Gary called one of his studies who is a really great guy with a rough background to ask him to keep an eye out for our things on the street. We'd be willing to buy them back. It kills us that our nice stuff will sell for next to nothing. Some of it is simply sentimental.


So we are in the new house, but feeling very vulnerable. Thing have not been going well for us.....we feel like Job :) We are not going to make any decisions for the next little while until we are no longer feeling emotional. We don't want to leave and we really don't feel like there is any danger to us physically and we will certainly be more on guard now. We are going to take it one day at a time. It just hurts very much to have lost so much of what little we had here with us. And to know that someone was evil enough to be watching us in order to violate us!

So that is the story this week. Gary begins Regular Pioneering September 1st (all well) which has been a goal of our family for so long, it will be a real sense of joy! Nikki and I start home schooling then too and my plan is to regular aux until we get a feel for how much I can take on at once. I'm spinning a little right now :)

I will post pictures of the new house once I find Nikki's camera and borrow it. She had it with her (thank goodness).

Onward.......