Ever been burglarized?

[Gerr]

I came to NC 3 mos ago, but my wife stayed in CA to sell our house. Sunday before last she came to NC what was planned to be a 2 wk stay. The evening she arrived, we got a call from CA that our house was burglarized. They took off with our safe with many very important papers. They found all her jewelry that was hidden in the attic. Fortunately for me, I brought to NC with me the electronics I considered valuable. So she had to return to CA the following day and I had to go with her. We spent the week going to the bank, DMV, calling credit bureaus & credit card companies, etc. etc. & other places/agencies to protect ourselves from indentity theft.

Have you ever been burglarized? Suffered identity theft?

Gerry

[Jeannieb43]

Oh, Gerry, I'm so sorry to hear this! What a violation -- of your space, your privacy, even your SELVES. Hope you can recover from it okay.

Sounds to me like it was an "inside job" -- since they seemed to know right where to find the jewelry, in the attic! And they knew the specific day the house would be unoccupied.

Wonder if you possibly might have some recourse against your real estate agent. They should bear some responsibility for the house after your wife left town.

I don't have any personal experience with identity theft, though I worry about it constantly, and do everything I can think of to try to prevent it.

Hang in there! -- and God bless you.

[Gregory Matthews]

Re: "Have you ever been burglarized?"

Yes.

1) We once lived in Southern California. in an apartment complex. A team came in one night, popped the locks on the garages, and stole boxes of tools. They were gone within minutes.

2) When living in Panama City, Panama, my wife was taking groceries from our automobile parked in our driveway, into the house. Someone stole her purse. A couple of hours later a telephone call was made to the Military Police, where I was stationed, telling us where we could pick up the purse. The only items missing were the cash, and an ink pen. But, the purse had been missing for a couple of hours. During that time we had canceled credit cards, placed stop payment orders on our checking account, and taken other action. That was fun, as we had to telephone the United States from a foreign country to do all of that.

3) We were visiting a children's museum in Denver when an announcement came over the speaker system: Will the owner of a (they mentioned my automobile) please report to security. When I did, they asked me if the front passenger window had been broken when I parked. I told them that it had not been broken. I was then told that it was now broken and that there was broken glass on the ground by the window. My wife informed me that her purse had been placed under the front seat and that it could not be seen. Well, it was missing. We had to replace credit cards, driver's license, military ID, and place stop payment orders on our checking account. Nothing was ever recovered.

NOTE: Item # 1 was covered by insurance. Item # 3 was covered by insurance for damage to the automobile. The hassle on all three was not fun.

[bevin]

Yes, twice...

Once in Australia, when teenagers broke into our apartment and took nothing of value

Once in the USA, similar nothing of value lost

I can still remember the feeling of vulnerability and violation.

/Bevin

[Gerr]

I hope we will have some recourse with the real estate agents. We have a burglar alarm, but they convinced us to leave it off during the daytime so that any agent can get in & show the house. They assured us that their lockbox in which the house key was put in is safe and very difficult to get into. Well, they did break it and took the key & walked right into the house, and of course, the alarm was off. And with the alarm being off, I don't know how our house insurance will look at it.

That was our first burglary ever, and my wife is taking it very hard.

Thanks for the kind words.

Gerry

[Gail]

Wow, Gerry- I don't know if all the foresight or compensation will erase the stress <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

No one has broken into my house, and I don't know why. When I first bought my car it came with 2 snow tires that promptly went missing but other than that I can't think of anything. My Miata has never been broken into, either. There's not really anything good to steal

[Jeannieb43]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Gerry Cabalo said:

I hope we will have some recourse with the real estate agents. We have a burglar alarm, but they convinced us to leave it off during the daytime so that any agent can get in & show the house. They assured us that their lockbox in which the house key was put in is safe and very difficult to get into. Well, they did break it and took the key & walked right into the house, and of course, the alarm was off. And with the alarm being off, I don't know how our house insurance will look at it.

Gerry

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

BIG liability for the real estate agents!!

(Is the advice to leave the alarm turned off written into your contract anywhere?? If so -- and even if not -- their goose should be cooked, but good.)

I would make a formal claim against the real estate company, ASAP. (leaving the dollar amount "unknown, but in excess of $____" as you really haven't had time yet to assess the total loss)

--But of course report it to your homeowners' insurance company immediately. They'll probably take pictures of the broken lockbox, etc.

[darlene]

My house has never been broken into that I remember but, my car (the same one) was stolen 3 times. Twice out of secured underground parking. It was found all three times with some fairly minor damage. The car I have now was broken into and my purse stolen out of the trunk. Fortunately someone was close by with a cel and we called the police. They said get home and cancel all your cards. We did that and nothing happened to any of them. The only problem was that it cost me about $200.00 to replace everything.

You know the worst thing for me was getting behind the wheel of my car the last time it was stollen and realizing that whoever stole it had sat there. That was tough. Almost didn't want to drive it again. <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

[Norman Byers, N.D.]

Hi Gerry,

I have been broken into before and it was frustrating. Once by some guy that lived down the street from me. He was giving what he stole to the girl across the street to impress her. She was a friend of mine and told me about it. He was caught and recovered most of the stuff.

The 2nd time was my ex-wife's doing. She called some people she knew to come and take my belongings ($10,000.00 worth) and then told me she put it out on the side of the house and someone just took it. I knew who did it but could not prove it. That was frustrating. I did get a lot of it back through some threats of taking the house if I didn't get my stuff back.

As for your situation, your insurance company should still cover you even if your system was not armed.

Sorry about all this stuff, it's not a good experience. There's a blessing in this somewhere though, so take courage my friend.

Norman

[LynnDel]

At our last location, we repeatedly had gas syphoned from our vehicles, radios ripped out of our cars while in our own driveway and garage, and farm equipment stolen. This is in spite of owning a Doberman and a German Shepherd.

Once my husband put two chain saws outside by the barn door in order to gas them up, came into the house to get a drink, and when he went out again, the chain saws were gone. Most of the stolen stuff was recovered; they'd catch the young guy who did it, throw him in jail for a week, then let him go, and he'd steal again. He just laughed at the cops, and there was apparently nothing they could do about it.

We eventually made it more difficult for people to drive in and out of our place, and the thefts stopped.

LD

[CyberGuy]

I had my identity stolen about five years ago. I suspect someone at a car rental place sold or used my id to steal my iD. The theives had my Social security number and my drivers license number. All of these I have to give to car rental dealers when I rent a car.

I first became aware when I got a cell phone bill to my address for a phone I did not order. I cancelled it and found out someone had bought it from LA. Then a second Cingular phone was bought and I cancelled that. I then notified the three credit companies and they put a lock on my credit. All purchases had to be verfied from my home phone. I got a call that these people tried to buy computers with my credit but I told the store owner to call the police as they were phonies. I called back but the owner said that they had fled when he was calling me to check on the credit.

I went to my local police department and filed a report but since these people lived in LA County they could do nothing. I called LAPD and they could do nothing as I did not live in LA county. It was very frustrating. Since then California has put teeth into the ID theft so this kind of problem would not be a problem now.

I told the police officer I filed a report with if he could at least threaten these people with a nasty letter. He said he would do that. The attempts to use my credit ceased after that.

I was lucky. All they had was my license number and my social security number. It could have been worse.

About a year ago someone got a hold of one my credit card numbers and attempted to buy $2500 of stereo equipment for a car. They did not have my credit card but only the credit card number. This put up a red flag at the credit card company as it was not my usual spending practice. They called me and I told them NO I had not purchased that item. They put a stop payment on that purchase. So only the store owner was out of the money.

For about two years now Now I notice that anytime I make a purchase at a store Any store they ask for your Drivers licence to verify you are the person on the credit card.

This seems to be Standard operating procedures now.

They should have been doing that a LONG TIME AGO.

Anyway the credit card company locked that credit card and sent me a new one with a new number.

ID Theft is a serious problem these days.

It is a good idea to put all bills through a paper shreader. A lot of ID theft comes through people going though peoples trash and getting credit card numbers off of credit card bills. If you do not have a shreader at least tear up by hand into as small pieces as possible the credit card bills and any bills for that matter. A shreader is best though.

[Dottie]

Cyberguy--

You --do not-- have to give anyone your social security number unless they are a bank or an employer, os have to report it to the Federal government. Getting one's S.S. number has been used for too long and people think that they must give it out. I never have to give my number when I rent a car.

Docotr's offices also ask for your number, but we don't give ours out. We use our insurance card number as an I.D.--it has the same number of digits. The offices accept this.

Alo, I never sign my credit cards on the back. Instead I write "check I. D." and if the clerk is paying attention, I have to show my driver's license. I don't carry my social security card with me, either.

D.

[cricket]

Our credit card numbers were stolen from us while I was giving birth to my son in the hospital. During my stay, the theifs were able to rack up $400 in clothing in both the teen girls department and the young boys departments. The charges were only 5 minutes apart and the signatures completely different from one another!

We didn't have to pay for these charges, but what a headache trying to get them off my statements!

_______

From the Visa Website:

Dealing with unsigned cards

If the signature panel is left blank...

Request a signature. Ask the cardholder to sign the card and provide current government identification, such as a driver's license or passport (if local law permits).

Check the signature. Be sure that the cardholder signature on the transaction receipt matches the one on the card and the additional identification.

Complete the transaction. If the signatures appear reasonably the same and the authorization request is approved, continue the transaction. If the cardholder refuses to sign the card, do not accept the card.

If the card has a “See ID” in place of a signature…

Request a signature. Ask the cardholder to sign the card and provide current government identification, such as a driver's license or passport (if local law permits).

Check the signature. Be sure that the signature on the card matches the one on the transaction receipt and the additional identification.

If the signatures appear reasonably the same and the authorization request is approved, go ahead and complete the transaction.