Pilcrow

Back in November I was contacted by the Secret Service about the burglary, because two of the ten people (accused of being) involved in the ring were going to trial rather than pleading guilty. At the time the trial was scheduled to begin December 5. However, the trial was delayed, and then one of the remaining people pled guilty after all, but the last one held out and trial was rescheduled to begin in March. Last week I got the call that trial would begin Monday, and today I appeared in court as scheduled, as a victim witness.

When they called last week, they told me to be at the courthouse at 8:30. I forgot to call them yesterday like I was supposed to, to confirm that I was still scheduled to appear; if I had, I might not have had to get up extra early. My instructions were simply to go to the courtroom floor, and when I got there no one was around. The subpoena I'd been given back in November specified a judge's name, so I sat outside that courtroom for a few hours reading my book, while people came and went. When the courtroom I'd been waiting by emptied and no one had yet spoken to me, I called the attorney's office to see if I could find out what was going on. They explained that the other judge on that floor was now hearing the case, and I should just go to the witness room for that court, so I did and found another couple witnesses. I learned from the other witnesses that they'd been told to come in for 1 pm, but then this morning were called back and asked to arrive for 10 am; probably if I'd remembered to call yesterday, I would've been told to come in later. Oh well.

Shortly after finding the correct witness room, the trial broke for lunch; after it reconvened, they started taking us witnesses quickly. My appearance was brief; as I'd been told, it was simply a matter of confirming the stolen checks hadn't been written by me, and that I neither knew the people they were written to nor had agreed to give them money. With that, I was done, and my involvement over, so far as I know. Eventually I'll get a letter telling me the result.

Even though I knew what to expect, I was still a little nervous to my surprise, but I was amused at myself for being so. I may have been more stressed about the trial than I realized. Monday morning I had a nightmare in which I was driving toward my parents' house (up Plymouth Ave, for those of you who know the 'hood) at night and the house was dark because no one was home. Suddenly there was a menacing figure staring out my old bedroom windows down at me, which was terrifying and I screamed myself awake. The silly part of that dream was that the figure appeared as some kind of black and white pattern, and I awoke with the impression it had been an evil panda.

This morning I had another nightmare. This time I was inside my old bedroom when suddenly there was a figure sneaking past the windows outside. I should point out the bedroom is on the second floor, but somehow the figure was sneaking just outside, I guess on some kind of nonexistent ledge. This time although I was startled and and alarmed, I was mainly angry rather than terrified, because I knew it was a thief trying to sneak in. Somehow I managed to grab him, or step outside to confront him, which is when I discovered the thief was dressed in black and white much like a mime. I think even in the dream I knew it was the same figure I'd seen on Monday, although clearly human not panda. I woke myself up yelling "hey! heyyyyy! heyyyy!" angrily at him.

Hopefully with my involvement in the trial over, I will no longer be haunted by the buglary or by nightmare panda/mime thieves.

Well, that was a surprise: I've received a package from the US DOJ. It seems some fools were still trying to use the checks they stole from me almost two years ago - and they were caught and are going to trial. This package was simply notification of the situation, but I may still be called to trial as a witness.

I believe I've got myself covered already - all they stole were blank checks and I cancelled those immediately - but the package included information on identity theft that makes me feel a bit antsy. If I'm going to look into buying a condo this year, I'll have to get a credit report anyhow, so perhaps sooner rather than later I should do that.

So I got two real surprises today on my birthday. First, it snowed last night, for real, in Seattle - enough to cover the ground with an inch or so, and it stayed cold enough to last into midday. And I've always loved snowy nights, with the way there's so much more ambient light in the city because of the snow reflecting the streetlights.

The second, and more substantial, surprise was a phone call from the Redmond Police. It seems they caught some woman trying to cash one of my stolen checks using a fake ID. They need me to go in next week and verify the checks are mine so they can prosecute. I never thought I'd hear anything more about the burglary, it's nice to see someone getting in trouble for it, even if I won't get my stuff back as a result.

Well, February wasn't done with the bad things for me.

I got home around 10 after midnight, after being out all day at work and then at my friends' house for dinner and a movie (Spinal Tap, which I'd never seen before (like oh so many other films)).

The first thing I noticed was that the back door to the apartment building wasn't actually shut, like it's supposed to be. That made me pause a moment. Just inside the back door is the door to the cellar, and for some reason I checked that door and discovered the knob was locked, which is also odd -- it's always deadbolted but the knob lock is never locked. But it looked like the landlord had been around the building cleaning up things earlier, so I think that's what's up with that.

I should explain that I'm in the front upstairs apartment of the building (it's a large old house with 4 apartments). Also, about a month ago someone jimmied the window of the back downstairs apartment and stole a bunch of CDs and some cash, but left other obviously valuable things (like a guitar) behind.

So I was a little concerned, as I said, about the back door being ajar. The upstairs hallway was dark, because we (foolishly) don't leave the light on all the time, but there was enough light from downstairs that I could see the hallway was empty. I got upstairs, turned on the light, and did not see anything wrong. Then I put my key in the deadbolt lock and turned it.

Two things were immediately obvious. One, turning the key did not actually move the deadbolt. Two, that did not matter, because the door was open. In fact, it had been forced open.

The "upside" to this is that the thief didn't take much. He stole a piece of wheeled luggage out of my closet. He stole my checkbook. He stole all (9) of my DVDs. He stole the change out of my jar of change on a shelf. He stole about 50 or so of my CDs, apparently grabbing a few random handfulls off the shelves.

Now here's what seems strange and stupid to me. He *had my luggage*. Obviously he could put a number of things in there. I have around 300 CDs, why not take more? Actually, why take CDs at all? He's not going to get much money for them.

He took time to open a file drawer, look in at least one dresser drawer, look in the closet. Why not grab the DVD player? That would fetch more money than the CDs, it'd only take a few seconds to unhook the cables, it'd fit in the luggage. Or the VCR, for that matter.

He grabbed my checkbook, which is in a little letter holder behind my calculator, but left the box of blank checks right next to it on the shelf. Duh. Why take the time to *empty* the jar of change -- it's just a tomato sauce jar, and was only half full -- instead of taking the jar and tossing it in the luggage?

So, I'm fortunate, I could have lost a lot more. I'm more pissed off than upset. But now, I don't know. This guy's hit the building twice now, and he knows what I've got in my place. What if he comes back? Can the landlord really make the building and apartment more secure?

This sucks. I hope March turns out better.