So I got broken into yesterday…

Walkin down the street, I don’t have a care in my mind. Well, I was hungry. Walking down the street, I had one care in my mind. I had come from orientation where I had shouted at freshmen to join DSP and the N Zone. It’s about 8 PM, I open the door, and see the TV on the couch. For a moment I think, “Hey, did someone else get a new TV?” cause I knew Kiel was coming back from being home and may have brought a new TV for some reason (insert shrugging emoji). I look right, and I see Bruce (my $5 plant from Stop and Shop) knocked over on the ground. And then I don’t see my game systems.

I think, “Well, someone broke in, and I don’t know when, or if they are still here.” I go to my room, notice my laptop is gone, and grab my baseball bat. I check each room in the house, making sure it is empty. I then call 911 and put my guitar down. I haven’t touched anything, the cops say they’ll be there soon, and I just let the world spin for a second. Then I say, “Hold up… whose jeans are those?” Lying on the ground is a set of True Religion jeans, size 38. Not mine, not Kiel’s, not Nate’s… What?

So this individual, which I am assuming it was a dude cause it was a pair of men’s jeans, breaks in, steals games systems, controllers, and a laptop, but leaves his nice pair of jeans? What? I cannot make this stuff up folks. I really can’t. The cops get to my place, I file a report with the officer, Kiel comes home a little later, we pop a 2x4 in the window so it can’t be forced open, and I play a little Doom on my PC that luckily wasn’t taken. I kinda just let everything sink in and relax. It’s tough, but murdering Mars Zombie things to heavy metal actually does help (thanks Ashwin for the recommendation).

When I stop to think about it, there are worse things that could have happened. No one was home, no one got hurt, more things could have been taken, they could have broken things, I’m insured. Lots of worse things could have happened. I feel uneasy that someone busted into my apartment and took my belongings, but strangely I still knocked out pretty quick last night. True, I slept with a baseball bat next to my bed, but I do that every night, and I didn’t feel the need to do anything differently. Today has been a day of filing claims, answering/making phone calls, making sure all of my data is secure, and working to see if there is any way that my stuff could be recovered. I left the pair of pants out on the porch with a note in the pocket asking the perpetrator to kindly bring my stuff back, no harm no foul. I’m checking Facebook marketplace and the Let Go app to see if the person is trying to sell it there. I’m going to call around to pawnshops and Gamestops in the area tonight after I help a friend with checkin out an apartment.

I might get my stuff back, I might not. I’m okay, life will go on, and I’ll be able to eventually replace everything taken. What I can’t stop thinking about is, “What led this individual to break into my apartment to steal my stuff?” What was this person’s path? I don’t think anyone does this for fun, I feel like it must be out of necessity to survive, whether it be to feed a drug addiction, or to get someone through another few days, or maybe they are caring for a family and have fallen on hard times. Maybe this person desperately needs help or maybe they just don’t care what’s right or wrong. I want to know why this person decided to take from another human being for a short gain. I wish I could talk to this person to understand, and I wonder if I could help this person. I mean think about it, if someone needs money, no matter what it is for, there are dozens of ways to come by that money legally. I may be thinking about this all wrong, and I may just not know because its not something I have ever thought through, but I feel like there could be a way to help this person without them needing to break into people’s places to continue doing what they are doing. In a “perfect” world, as useless as saying that is, there would be no such things as stealing. No one would need to. If everyone had access to healthcare, education, and a fair shot at a job that would pay for living expenses and then maybe one vacation a year, eating out a couple times a month, and the chance to see a movie or two, maybe a netflix subscription, what would the point of breaking into someone’s apartment be?

I know that’s way too idealistic, its not based in a whole lot of facts and its not our reality. I guess I’m just frustrated with the way the world is today where we have such a great ability to act with human kindness, and opportunity to provide for one another, the capacity to love each other, to build communities, everything, but we still have robberies. The officer who came by said, “We’ll have someone on this, but so you know, there were six homicides this weekend that we are also working on.”

That sorta just sank in a bit. Here’s me, with a couple stolen electronics, and this dude and his department are dealing with so much more. That’s nuts. Usually I have something in particular to say for each of these posts, but right now I’m just sorta sitting in my feelings. Also… dude… why did you leave your jeans at my apartment? I kinda hope you find this post cause it just doesn’t make any sense to me. If you want your jeans back, take em, they’re not my size. I’d love it if you returned my stuff, and if you want any personal finance help or a job or anything, I’ll help you out, I’ll do what I can, I just want a world in which you don’t have to break into apartments, and the people you break in on to not have to worry about being broken into. I want to know what got you to where you are now that you decided to do it. Hey, maybe it was just for kicks, and in that case, I dunno, but seriously, I’m assuming its not a fun time, and there’s always a chance if you keep doing this that someone will get hurt. So yeah, size 38, if somehow you read this, I would be more than happy to figure out a way for me to get my stuff back, and for you to not have to break into houses anymore, and that be it.

My only ask today of all of you is to show kindness to everyone that you meet. Doesn’t matter if its the person next to you on the T, or a homeless person on the street, or your friend you’ve known since 2nd grade, or your parents, or your in-laws, or the mail person, whoever. Smile, crack a joke, say hello. Hold the door open. If someone’s having a bad day, try cheering them up. Small acts of kindness can make someone’s day. Maybe if we all just treat each other a little better, stuff like this won’t happen anymore. Maybe I’m being idealistic or unrealistic, but hey, I can hope. And dude, if you’re out there, come get your pants back.

To close, one of my favorite quotes from Jim Jeffries, “Now this just might be the most hippie thing that ever comes out of my mouth. But it’s true. The only thing that can beat hate is love. Now, love doesn’t always beat hate. It doesn’t always beat hate. But it does do something.”