Years ago I was burgled. I flatted on my own at the time and for months afterwards I slept very lightly. Every little sound in the night had me awake and sitting bolt upright, listening out, wondering if there was someone in my house, my heart thumping through my chest.
I was lucky really. Charles took nothing of sentimental value and he didn’t make a mess. TV, Video, Stereo and some CDs. My landlord wasn’t surprised. She’d been waiting for me to be burgled. She had a hard time keeping tennants in the bottom flat. Umpteen in a row had been burgled within a month of moving in. Charles lived in the flat next to me with his girlfriend. He was the one who’d done it.
The day after the burglary I phoned every 2nd-hand store in Wellington and tracked down some of the CDs and the stereo. The guy who sold the CDs to Real Groovy had used his real name and ID. The police tracked hi down easily abnd he took the police to the flat where he’d collected the stolen goods, the flat next to mine, Charles’ flat. He kindly told the police who else had been there at the same time collecting goods from Charles.
It wasn’t long before the police executed a search warrant on Simon’s place. In the end I got 138 out of 139 CDs back. I was impressed, especially since many were limited edition CDs or overseas releases of NZ bands.
Charles and his girlfriend disappeared pretty quickly. My landlord cleared out their flat and found a wardrobe of empty jewellery boxes. Clearly they’d been busy. They didn’t redirect their mail so I did it for them – straight to my police liaison person. Best bit of mail was a renewal notice for a storage place. I believe the police recovered some more stuff belonging to other people.
Simon and Charles and a few others were arrested and charged. I think they got off pretty lightly. They didn’t physically hurt anyone though I too moved out after a few months. I moved into a secure apartment building and to this day I’m paranoid about security. I sleep a little more soundly these days.
Simon still bugs me. His name is in the public domain. It isn’t like he’s super famous, most people probably barely notice his name but I see it. I won’t read anything he writes. Every time I see his name I want to tell his employer they have a thief among them. When the police returned my recovered CDs they included a copy of the search warrant on Simon’s place and my property which was recovered. I don’t suppose I was meant to see that but I did and Simon, I know what you did. I’m not going to make a fuss about it now, I’ll wait till you’re a little more famous, a little further along in your career.
