BURGLED - THE EPILOGUE

by Doug Roland

One of the policemen suggested that we make a list of the items missing and take them to three pawn shops. Around here, that means wondering in to areas and places not frequented by anyone we know. They had interesting names like "Cash Converters ", "Cash Crusaders" and "24/7". The folks behind the desks were very nice and seemed to be familiar with the "list" routine. They were, however, a little baffled by the meaning of Garmin and Kindle.

Three hours after I dropped off one of the lists, the manager called asking me to describe the Kindles. When I did, he asked how fast could I get there because he had them. We were there within 10 minutes and brought them home. And we had a description of the "guy" as about 5', very muscular, black, with a yellowish t-shirt and denim pants. To date, these are the only things recovered.

I called a Garmin dealer. To my surprise, I had saved the serial number. Now any Garmin dealer in the world who handles that Garmin can keep it as a hot item. Nothing yet.

Next was the insurance man. Since we do not own the house, we insured some, but not all, the personal items as a rider to our car insurance. Items to be insured had to be specified. So, we received the limits, less deductible, for the Garmin and the camera. Though this was better than a poke in the eye, the real damage arose when we went to buy new stuff.

The boom box and camera were not a big deal since they come directly from either Japan or China. But anything purchased in the U.S. is very difficult to replace. We bought new backpacks but they are not nearly the same quality. If we had to replace the Kindles, the price would be at least doubled and probably more. For example, a friend of ours here priced a basic Kindle at a "Wal-Mart" type store. In dollars, it was about $330.00. The basic one sells in the U.S. for just under $100.00. Fortunately, we were able to buy the same binoculars we had before at a reduced price.

The new tennis shoes were a good deal - about the same as in the U.S.

A couple of days after the theft, a police investigator came over and basically wrote down the same information we had given the first responders, but on a new form. Later on, I went to the police station to obtain a copy of the police report. I was able to talk with the Capt. in charge. I advised him that the investigator had come but nothing from the fingerprint team. He said he had told them he was not happy that they had not been there. As I left, he said they would be there the next day. I also told him about the description given by the pawn shop manager on the off-chance someone might interview him.

About 4-5 days later, I got a call from a police officer about whether anyone had come to the house for fingerprints. I said they had not. He asked when the break-in happened and I told him about two weeks earlier. "Too much time has passed now to do prints!!" he said in disgust, as though it was our fault. I informed him that we had been told at least 4 times that the print crew would be there soon. He feigned surprise and said someone would call back in 10-15 minutes. That was last week. We've continue to preserve four finger prints on the wall. The cops were good at the beginning not in the end. The fingerprint guys might have been imaginary.

The whole affair was not without irony. The "old" Garmin was quite difficult to use, even with the instruction book that he left behind. The Kindles were in more or less good condition. I turned on one of them and the letters on the screen were at maximum size, suggesting that he had played around with it and probably realized it didn't play music or contain any porn. (Maybe he missed that book by D.H. Lawrence.) In short, he saw no quick market value in something that only contained words. Believe me, this is not a book culture. The other Kindle did not work at all. I was unable to get it to accept a charge. So I advised Amazon, and they replaced it. Of course, it was shipped to the Tampa address. So another month delay.

A few days later, I stumbled onto another bit of post-theft damage. I check our credit cards online every month. I had changed my Amazon password so that no one could buy stuff. Still, there were two charges, $50 and $100 in favor of "Amazon Local", whatever that is. Our good fortune is that Chase Bank has a toll free out-of-country line. I spoke with the representative who then got the Amazon Local person on the line. Wireless Kindles communicate directly and exclusively with Amazon. Ours have Tampa advertising on them for all sorts of goods and services. It seems that our enterprising thief hit some buttons and ordered a new car windshield ($100) and tinting ($50). There was a link to the service provider and it turned out to be a shop at the intersection of I-275 and Dale Mabry. I doubt that our not-so-literate thief had any idea. The charges were removed. The Chase guy and the Amazon lady both appreciated the humor. And so did I.