Robbed!

Last Saturday, Dan and I drove up to our soon-to-be neighborhood so we could explore the park that is right across the street from our home. The park is spacious and green with two playgrounds, a public tennis court, a small sand-volleyball pit, and our favorite aspect, two walking trails: Circling a portion of the park is a rubber track where many people were walking or jogging. Adjacent to the park is a huge water basin to protect against flooding. Inside the bowl of the basin is a dog park (so if it floods, I guess the dogs and owners are doomed), but the rim of the basin is a mile and a quarter round and wide enough for a group of friends to go running together.

Dan and I walked every bit of both trails, excitedly anticipating how perfect the location of the park is and how Dan could come home from work and just do a quick 2-3 laps around the basin and be done, and in the future, we could have bikes to go on rides together. . . . (I haven't had a bike since I was eight years old!)

So, there we were, feeling pretty dang happy about our neighborhood and sharing our hopes and dreams for our family when we decided to make a quick stop at our new house.

Don't tell on us, but the last time our realtor showed us the house, a certain in-law may or may not have snatched the garage opener and gave it to us for future use. This made me nervous, but Dan wanted to keep a close eye on the house to prevent any problems like the water-damage we had on our last offer.

The garage door opened, we stepped inside and closed the garage behind us. Then we both stopped. Something was very, very wrong. We could just feel it the moment we saw that the door from the garage directly into the laundry was missing, as well as the door from the laundry room into the main house. The cupboards in the laundry room were also open.

"Where are the doors??" Dan said, perplexed and cautious as we entered the kitchen. My jaw dropped open. Every drawer and cupboards in the kitchen was slightly open, as if someone had quickly rummaged through it, searching for something.

Dan told me to stay put, and wandered upstairs while I held my breath and prayed that an intruder was not about to shoot my husband.

Nothing was amiss upstairs. Dan checked all the windows and they were locked. Then he opened the front door. The problem was, he OPENED the front door. It was unlocked! And the lock-box with the key was completely missing. Someone had clipped the lock box, stolen the key, and then stolen two of our doors.Odd that they didn't steal the brand-new fans throughout the house, or the A.C. Units (a common thievery for empty, unsold homes).

We left the house and the creepy feeling inside while Dan walked across the cauld-i-sac to talk to our neighbor. This is where the story gets stranger and slightly incriminating: On the drive-way between our neighbors' cars was a beat-up DOOR. Kind of like someone had just taken off their beat-up door and replaced it with brand-new ones, like the ones from our house, perhaps? All the houses in that neighborhood are similar in layout, so our doors would fit perfectly. Hmmm.... right??

We knocked on all the neighbors' doors but no one seemed to be home. We kept trying to figure out if this was just a weird coincidence, or maybe there was a logical explanation -- that maybe the seller took the doors out temporarily for another project. But after many phone calls, it looks like we were indeed robbed before we even moved in. So we demanded new doors and new locks on the door, as well as the garage sensors turned off in case there is a second remote floating around.

We for sure get to move in next weekend because by contract, we can't close any later than the 11th. But now I'm a little bummed that the thrill of our new home is somewhat tainted by the creepy feeling of knowing someone was sneaking around our home already. But I'm also trying to tell myself that robbery can happen anywhere, anytime. I'll feel better once we get an alarm system installed, though.

So that's the latest in our house saga! Dan and I are going walking up there again today. It just feels good to be out.