My Mac was stolen this morning and I feel like kicking myself.

deafskeptic

deafskeptic

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Today I woke up around six a.m. this morning and found that my Mac, two of my cameras and my i-pod are stolen.

What's worse is that my DVD player and my pc were stolen two days ago and I didn't contact anyone other than my parents. I should have gotten my keys changed because I'm missing one keyring and I should have contacted the police about it yesterday. I kept putting it off and now it's too late and now I feel like kicking myself for letting this happen to me twice. I'm at kinko because I want to get a hold of one of my accounts so my account isn't compromised. . I have gotten careless and now I just feel like kicking me...I have no good excuse for putting this off.

It's clear to me that the thief has my apartment key and that he must have found my missing apt keyring cuz I locked both the patio door and my front door last night and he also has my car key.. I'm lucky my car isnt' stolen.

As soon as I leave kinko's, I'm having door keys changed and then reporting this to cops. First thing monday, I'm putting my silver in a safety desosit box.
 
OMG! I am so sorry, deafskeptic! Please get your locks changed ASAP. I'm grateful that you weren't harmed during the thefts. As much of a pain in the a** as this is for you, at least you are okay. I hope they will track the thief down in short order.
 
think maybe you need to leave the doors alone and report the cops first so maybe they can do fingerprints??? after reporting you can change the locks. were you home when your things were stolen? that's scary.
 
omg how scary for you
i am sorry but glad you are ok i hope you can be careful later on please be careful now ok smile
 
That is frightening! The thief was in your apartment while you're sleeping.:cold:

I'm glad that you're OK. :)

I hope they find the thief and your possessions soon.

Stay safe.
 
OMG thats scary! Im just grateful that you werent harmed during the robberies. :hug:

I would report to the police first thing rather than reporting to an online forum. But anyway, let the officers get prints while you run to a hardware store to change the locks on your aparment.

Also now that the thief knows the exact layout of the place, its time to rearrange the furniture. Move things around, and put something big and bulky in front of all the windows or at least an obstacle that the would-be thief will have to deal with.

I would also consider moving to a new apartment for your safety in case this guy gets bolder and starts going for more than just objects.
 
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Oooh that sux. I'm sorry this happened to you. Wherever you can, get a dog. Dogs are great theft deterrents. Yes, a canopy was stolen outside but one of my dogs, only five months old, was barking aggressively at 4am. I didn't see anything but I knew she was having issues. My guy had to learn an expensive lesson. I told him it'd get stolen and it sure did. But good to know my dogs were trying to tell us something.
 
If you know the computers serial that would be a great help. Turns out that many pawn shops submit serials to a website that can be tracked by police in all 50 states. The police can then type in your serial and see if it pops up in that database. If it does they will know exctly what pawn shop has it. I mention pawn shops because most high dollar thefts are taken directly to pawn for a quick buck. This is also where the police start looking. Being computer makes it even a bit easier to search pawn shops as most will not deal with computers. Meaning that very few will.

Also if you know your computer Network MAC adress it can be found when it logs into the internet. There are websites out there that will do that for you. Assuming you had it hooked to a router (even wirelessly) the router should have the MAC adress logged for you.

-Del
 
If I were you, I'd also look into changing the locks on my car as quickly as possible. I don't know how much money your car is worth, but you can bet it would cost an awful lot more to replace it! I've never had my car stolen before, but some kid without insurance totalled it. Before the accident, my car was running perfectly! I loved my car, and I had full coverage on my, but my insurance company gave me money to cover the VALUE of my car instead of the COST to replace it. If I were to try to buy a car for the amount they gave me, it probably wouldn't even run. So in my view, it's definitely worth it to protect yourself from letting your car get stolen.
 
Oh no! Please change the lock! .. Sorry about that :(
 
leave your light on!
 
Did this happened while you were sleeping? :eek3: I hope whoever did this is caught and put away. I feel for you and I hope that you'll be able get your stuff back.

hang in there :hug:
 
:hug: Oh deafskeptic! I'm so sorry this happened to you, but am relieved that you're okay.

Other posters have given you excellent advice.

I would also advise you to have a good alarm system installed (if you don't have one already).

Also, someone mentioned keeping the lights on. I would suggest placing two lamps near your windows -- one near the living room window and the other near the patio door. If the patio is located near your kitchen, I would keep the kitchen light on at dusk and at night. This may result in a high electricity bill, but IMO, a robbery costs more in the long run. In my apartment, I always keep the florescent light above my kitchen sink on at night while I'm sleeping so any would-be thieves know that someone is home.

In regards to your patio door, do you have a wooden block that can be slid between the patio door and the wall? At my sister's home, she has a wooden block that fits between the edge of the patio door and the wall so that if someone tries to open the patio door, it won't budge.

If you're not at home most of the time, I would invest in a timer which turns your lights on automatically at a certain time of day.

Most importantly, I'd contact the police immediately before changing the locks.
Please keep us updated to let us know how you are doing.

Hopefully the police will catch the thief/thieves.
 
authentic said:
help him to pay some electric bills would you?
Click to expand...

I did asked my mom in law, Does she pay more for electric bills, if she let the light on and leave her home for night? She said, better safe than nothing. But, she said not expensive bills from electric. one lamp light on the Hall, that is enough.
 
Hear Again said:
:hug: Oh deafskeptic! I'm so sorry this happened to you, but am relieved that you're okay.

Other posters have given you excellent advice.

I would also advise you to have a good alarm system installed (if you don't have one already).

Also, someone mentioned keeping the lights on. I would suggest placing two lamps near your windows -- one near the living room window and the other near the patio door. If the patio is located near your kitchen, I would keep the kitchen light on at dusk and at night. This may result in a high electricity bill, but IMO, a robbery costs more in the long run. In my apartment, I always keep the florescent light above my kitchen sink on at night while I'm sleeping so any would-be thieves know that someone is home.

In regards to your patio door, do you have a wooden block that can be slid between the patio door and the wall? At my sister's home, she has a wooden block that fits between the edge of the patio door and the wall so that if someone tries to open the patio door, it won't budge.

If you're not at home most of the time, I would invest in a timer which turns your lights on automatically at a certain time of day.

Most importantly, I'd contact the police immediately before changing the locks.
Please keep us updated to let us know how you are doing.

Hopefully the police will catch the thief/thieves.
Click to expand...

Many years ago after I had bought my first house of my own, I did lots of controlled experiments to test the things in my house that ran up the bills. One of them was lights. My house was in an area where in those days, the summer weather was fairly consistent for about 9 months out of the year. So here's what I did. I tested for 3 in a row of the 6 middle months with every light in the house on 24 hours a day, then the other 3 months with never any lights on. I did not notice a change in my electrical usage or bill. Also, this was BEFORE compact fluorescent bulbs were affordable. Now I use those, but I just turn on a light whenever I want to see, or whenever it is a safety feature, and I don't worry about the cost because it's much too little to consider. At most a few cents.

Also, if you use a light timer as a safety feature, use an electromechanical one. They are not accurate to when they turn on and off the lights, and can vary by up to 20 minutes. The digital ones will turn on and off your lights at precisely the same second every day. Thieves will catch on to that easily.

I personally don't use light timers for lights except for my own benefit, and therefore I use digital ones. I use them in place of alarm clock to wake me up. I can plug into a vibrator for my mattress. When I leave the house, I just turn on the same lights that I'd have when I'm home anyway. That way, a thief who is looking for a change in the pattern to figure out if I'm home or not will be fooled into thinking I'm still home. I don't worry that the lights are running in the day. I have switched every light bulb in my house to compact fluorescent, so I figure I hardly use any electricity at all to light my home. Of course that means I can't use a dimmer, but if I want dimmer light, I just turn off the overhead light and use just the lamp. Or I just use a candle. I love scented candles anyway.

Thieves, if you manage to find your way into my apartment, and let me tell you if you don't know the way in, it will be difficult, then you'll be pissed to learn there is nothing of value until you get into my bedroom where I'm sleeping. My bedroom door is locked. If the door opens, the overhead light comes on automatically, which wakes me up. So you better turn off the power first, which triggers my UPS to activate my bed vibrator. :rofl:

Okay, so my mom got really worried about my personal safety when she found out I was deaf. So I went all out on security.
 
I have a personal security alarm in my apartment as well as lamp timers that are set to turn on the lights at different times of the evening. If I remember correctly, mine is digital. (I can't remember because I bought it several years ago).

Another thing I do is to place my white cane diagonally between the doorknob and the wall so that if a thief tries to open the door, it won't budge. The same can be done with a walking cane.

Oh, yes. I always keep the TV on at night so that it will deter thieves from thinking I'm not at home.

And SimplyMints, you're exactly right about lights and electric bills. There have been times where I've had the lights on for days (because my guests forgot to turn them off) yet it didn't impact my electric bill.
 
Dang, another one? I'm sorry for your loss of your stuff. :( It's really fustrating when you lose expensive stuff that I lost on end of September. I hope you had renter's insurance.

You gotta remember that the economy has gone to the toliet, so lot of people are out of work and they decide to steal things to survive.
 
PlEEEEAAASSEEE Get the locks changed! If they broke in while u were sleeping, they are capable of anything. I am sorry about your items being stolen BUT I am happy that u werent harmed! That's the most important thing. :hug:
 
deafskeptic said:
Today I woke up around six a.m. this morning and found that my Mac, two of my cameras and my i-pod are stolen.

What's worse is that my DVD player and my pc were stolen two days ago and I didn't contact anyone other than my parents. I should have gotten my keys changed because I'm missing one keyring and I should have contacted the police about it yesterday. I kept putting it off and now it's too late and now I feel like kicking myself for letting this happen to me twice. I'm at kinko because I want to get a hold of one of my accounts so my account isn't compromised. . I have gotten careless and now I just feel like kicking me...I have no good excuse for putting this off.

It's clear to me that the thief has my apartment key and that he must have found my missing apt keyring cuz I locked both the patio door and my front door last night and he also has my car key.. I'm lucky my car isnt' stolen.

As soon as I leave kinko's, I'm having door keys changed and then reporting this to cops. First thing monday, I'm putting my silver in a safety desosit box.
Click to expand...

Oh boy... You should have a "LoJack" system for your computer, if your computer stolen, call the lojack company to trace it and they will call police.

Better get a motion detector lights for your protection, if the intruder entered an apt, the motion detector will turn the light on, it's scare intruder away..

My friend used in an apt, a friend installed an alarm system, not anymore, he moved to townhouse with an alarm system.
 
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