A Robbery at the Smith House: What Might Have Been

When I got home from a weekend trip to Leah's in Lynchburg this evening, this is the first thing I saw when I walked into the house. That big white space behind the credenza normally has a 47-inch flat-screen television set in it. It was gone. That was a hint.

On further inspection, I discovered that both of my television sets (a guy who rarely watches TV has two sets; go figure) were history. So was a camera rig and a laptop computer. What remained raised the most significant questions. The thief, for example, took a Lenova laptop computer, which was sitting on top of another computer just like it. He left me one. He took a Canon camera rig in a bag that was sitting on the floor next to a Nikon rig.

He left a ton of other stuff that would have sold quickly at a pawn shop, I suspect, and I'm grateful he was either nervous or considerate. So, now I get to go through all the insurance stuff, hit the stores and make some replacements. Fortunately, nothing is gone that can't easily--and relatively inexpensively--be replaced. The insurance company will be pissed, but hey, they lost the bet.

I've been robbed before and it never feels good. The policeman who was dusting for prints said there has been a spate of break-ins in this neighborhood in recent weeks, but nobody's been caught. I asked him if catching the culprits was likely and he said he thought so. I asked if getting my stuff back was much of a probability. He asked if I had serial numbers. I said no. He shook his head. "Almost no chance," he said.

Did I mention that I can't find my wallet. I think I left it at the Goodwill store on U.S. 460 where I bought this wonderful doll for my grandgirl on the way home. I'll go by and see if they have it tomorrow. The way my luck's running, I'll get a ticket for driving without a license.