Why is there a man with a gun in my living room??

Anyone that follows me on facebook knows that my GPS was stolen out of my car back at the end of January.  My car was opened, riffled through, all parts of the GPS taken and then the door was closed again. This was all done without setting off my car alarm.  I posted what happened on our neighborhood board, and found out that there were quite a few cars that had been broken into--also without setting the alarms off, taking any electronics that could be found.  

So like most people would, I bought a new GPS.  This time I was much more careful about taking it down every night and dropping it in my purse.  Apparently not careful enough two nights ago when, hands full, I left my GPS in my car (in the center console).  I was so distracted that I didn't even realize that I had forgotten it.  Yesterday I came out to my car to go to the gym and realized that I didn't see my GPS cord.   With a plunging heart I quickly realized that I had been robbed...AGAIN.  35 days after the first theft, the bastards had managed to get into my car again (cause the first time wasn't difficult enough apparently) and took my GPS again.  

If you feel stupid reporting that something got stolen out of you car because you left it in plain site, let me tell you that feeling increases ten fold when you have to call the police AGAIN because your car has been broken into twice in one month.  At first, I have to admit I was almost amused that it happened again.  That quickly turned to fury that I projected at anything I could find.  

Now readers, I don't live in the ghetto, or the projects. I live in an upper middle class townhouse community with million dollar homes down the road. We are getting targeted.  Since I posted on our neighborhood board that people need to file police reports when these thefts happen, the police now are required to come out and take a statement in person.  I mean, it's great and all to meet my neighborhood county cop, but it my GPS is still gone and I'm pretty sure they aren't perusing pawn shops for it. My neighbors have a camera pointing at their cars, and another over their door. I hoped that perhaps they recorded that night, but no luck.  The police talked to them this morning and found out that their camera's don't record.  

Now comes in the guy with a gun....

I was sort of sneakily getting a shot of him while my husband talked to him. All of the stuff on the floor was donations I was taking after our swap. 

When this nice officer came calling we learned how incredibly short staffed they were, to the point that there was one officer for half our county.  That must be close to half a million people (if not more!) and one officer is in charge. No wonder they can't patrol!  

So morals learned

1. Screw GPS's, I'm using my phone.  Ironically I hated the new GPS I'd gotten anyways.  

2. Depending on the police might not be the best idea. as they are understaffed, over stretched and under funded.

3. Get a house with a garage...no seriously, I'm willing to give up a basement to keep my car safe.

4. Living in a nice area means that your car is MORE likely to be broken into. 

5. Learned to be grateful that they didn't break a window.  

6. VOTE! This is a RICH county with a LOT of people that make a LOT of money. It's unacceptable that our police are so radically underfunded, and that the police are expected to have to sacrifice an officer to be solely responsible for the mall near my house.  

7. I did mention that we are looking to move, right?  I think that this event might have thrown me over the line from 'eh' to 'I'll pack tomorrow!' I love our house, but the petty crime in this neighborhood is getting scary. 

8. This is really sad, but one of my first thoughts was "damn, this is going to make a great blog post!" I'm sort of pitiful like that. 

Oh ... what a week! Sorry I didn't mange to make this post funny.  I'm just sort of emotionally drained after this week.