It probably happened last night. The burglar/s took the opportunity while we were in Batangas, having a team building activity overnight.
The time was 12:30pm. I arrived at home still hung over from last night’s after party. Imagine my delight when I saw from the street corner that our gate is already open. I thought my housemates were already home. That meant less effort for me in opening the locks.
It was puzzling for me to see the gate padlock on the ground. My emotions escalated quickly when I saw that we no longer have a door knob. I asked if the neighbors saw something. I was told that when the guy next door threw their trash around 6AM, the gate was already open. They just assumed we were home.
The caretaker of the apartment building beside ours went to my aide. He called the group leader of Bantay Bahay, our version of a neighborhood watch which I didn’t know even existed. He came from work so it took a good 30 minutes of waiting time. At this point, I should have already told you that I was inside the gate but couldn’t enter the main door since there’s no door knob anymore and yet it’s still locked. I can’t pick locks.
The Bantay Bahay group leader decided we should not open the door until the police arrive.
It was one hour of waiting time! In that hour, I’ve been communicating with friends I was supposed to meet at 2pm. I was supposed to be at my guy best friend’s wedding, you see. I also used that time to internally panic about my roommates valuables. I knew there was nothing worth above 10K that they could take from my room anyway. During this time, I also practiced what to say to Phoebe and Charles if ever I see that their room has been ransacked. Just the thought of it made me tear up.
Then, the policemen finally arrived thirty minutes later. We had the door opened. I immediately went to check the other room and let out a huge sigh of relief when I saw their door was untouched. But then, I turned to my room and saw that my room was sooooo messy. I didn’t even think it was possible. The burglar/s did a good job thoroughly searching, overturning everything in his way. And I mean EVERYTHING – my cabinet is now empty and my clothes are everywhere, my shoe bin is empty and my shoes are everywhere, my storage bins are empty and my documents, clothes, makeup, accessories, wires are everywhere. My room’s now just a pile of chaos.
They got my statement and took photos of the “crime scene”. Afterwards, they took me to the police station to file a police blotter for the first time.
At 4:30pm, I only just started to rummage through my stuff. I didn’t want to deal with it. Every spot I turn to made me cringe with disgust to the people who did this.
The first notable thing taken was my bamboo alkansya, my only souvenir from when we went to Nagsasa Cove. I was supposed to break it in August. It was my Singapore 2013 Fund. As in literally, those words were written on its side using a purple nail polish. Halfway filled, it was 8 months worth of 5 and 10-peso coins, some 20s, a couple 1000s and lots of 100s.
The second one was the box of foreign currency that I keep for sentimental reasons. It had Euros sent by my aunt for my birthday and US dollars sent by an uncle, also for my birthday. It also contained Singapore Dollar, Ringgit and Baht bills from my Asian tour with my mother last 2008. That was thousands lost when converted to Peso.
The third were the GCs on my table. It was 1500 worth of The Spa gift certificates that we (Groove@HP) won for walking the most number of steps collectively as a team. It was gonna be used for stressful moments like this. They were beside my 500-peso SODEXHO GC so that one was gone too. That could’ve been additional food for my birthday party.
The fourth and probably the MOST annoying of all – the modem/router was also taken. Two words: NO INTERNET.
Some of the items stolen include the company-provided mobile phone, its charger, my iPhone charger, probably expired MAKEUP (seriously!), some sandals and shoes, my personal laptop’s battery (dumbass didn’t take the whole thing), SUPERKALAN (again, seriously!), some underwear. I haven’t taken into account all my things but I’ll surely know what else was stolen as soon as I’ve cleaned my room.
In a way, it was lucky for us that our valuables weren’t here during the break-in that we can imagine disappointment on the burglars’ faces for not being able to score big items.
This is the second dramatic moment of March 2013, the first one being that I almost died in a car accident during my trip to Zambales. Nonetheless, I feel fine. I was just shaken because I’m really sentimental hence the Leslie Knope hoarder lifestyle.
I also already saw a silver lining behind this. Now, I can finally clean my room because I don’t have a choice. I could barely sit on my bed so I’m holed up right outside of my door to write this post, which will be uploaded using the really slow phone 3G connection. (shoutout to @talk2globe!)
Another positive thing is that I’m finally seeing things I thought I lost, the makeup brush set gifted to me for instance.
Also, I’m thankful they didn’t take the stuff that was actually pricey. Thank God for their priorities.
Most importantly, I’m thankful none of us were at home during this incident. A few lost items and cash can be replaced but never a person’s life and well-being.
Ending this post abruptly to start cleaning.
*plays Andy Grammer’s Keep Your Head Up*