House Break-in

My next door neighbor had an unpleasant surprise yesterday upon returning from an overseas trip: Someone had burglarized her house. All of her gold jewelry was gone, only a few silver rings and necklaces were left.

She came right away to my house, in tears and afraid to stay alone in her house. Her husband was on his way back from a business trip and was expected later in the evening.

Together, we walked thru her house to see whether more was stolen than just the jewelry from the bedroom. Luckily,the burglars seemed to have been in a hurry to get out of the house again because they left behind a big and heavy shovel. So nothing else was stolen, but we wondered for what they would have needed the shovel.

We then called police. The officers investigated and took photographs, though they didn't give my neighbor much hope that she would see her jewelry again.

My neighbor is heartbroken, particularly because one of the stolen pieces is her engagement ring, which is a family heirloom. It was originally made as engagement ring for her husband's grandmother.

Worrisome is that one of the police officers told us about a sharp increase of break-ins in our Boston suburb. According to him, it's because of the bad economy and he predicted, we will see more crime like that in the future as the recession continues. His advice: Get a security alarm system. A simple one with window and door contacts will already do, which will sound an alarm if someone tries to move or break a window.