(no subject)

[geminigirl]

Dear D.L.,

I don't know you...not beyond your name, your age and a vague idea of where you live, but I think you ought to know that you've irreversably changed the lives of my children and I am angry about it. You see, a few months ago, you took your 19 year old self and wandered through our neighborhood (and by "our" I mean the one that my family-my husband, my children and me share with you,) checking car doors to see which ones were open, and taking things from those cars. Unfortunately, my husband had forgotten to lock the car doors after he had (very thoughtfully) taken my car and put gas in it, and you felt that it was okay to open my car door and help yourself. I don't know what you stole from our neighbors, (other than a gun, which I only know because it came up in conversation with the detective who investigated all 200 or so of your escapades, as we discussed whether or not to press charges, and I mentioned that what I'd likely do is press charges but request that the prosecutor offered some kind of diversion opportunity instead of the usual consequences,) but I do know what you took from my car. You took a case full of CDs, a few very special ones with meaning and memories attached, a phone charger and an iPad cable that's so broken that it's nearly unuseable. And to you, it's a few bucks, maybe if you sell it on eBay or to a friend-I can pretty much guarantee that you tossed the CDs into the trash...I don't think you would like any of the ones that were in there. But that's not really what you took. You took security from my children-the feeling that their neighborhood is free of "bad guys or ebil doers." You took away the belief that Mama and Papa will always be able to keep the bad stuff away. You made them face some very grown up feelings and fears. They're still talking about what you did...about what the "big boy" in our neighborhood did, and whether he had a gun or not, and whether he had a bag or not. And perhaps most important of all, if he'll come back and try and take things from our house.

You took irreplaceable things. And while I can forgive you (mostly) for the material goods, I will never forgive you for the way you changed my children.

Comments

[bicrim.livejournal.com]

Our house was burglarized a few years ago. Isaac doesn't remember, but Elliot does, and he often talks about hiding his special toys so that "the robbers" can't find them. They were in his room, and did take the baby ring his grandparents had given him, so he has a right to feel that way. It sucks. I don't care about what was stolen, but I care very much about feeling like our home isn't secure.

[ms-adria.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately crime is a part of life, perhaps you could use this as a teaching moment and point out to your daughters how privileged y'all are to live in a neighborhood where this happens so infrequently, because many poor people have to worry about stuff like this on a daily basis.