I’m 58 years old and this was the first time I, personally, have had been anything personal vandalized. Our church had been broken into. I’ve had buildings I own be invaded by vandals, but I’d never personally had things stolen from me prior to Sunday night. It was violation of my personal space, and I was NOT a happy camper. But, despite being upset, I was more grateful for everything. So many difficult things we’ve been going through lately, and this event helped to put some of them back into perspective for me.

I’m so grateful that we have a God who is in control of our lives and very existence. Before we left Dade City, we had gotten with Peter, and the three of us had prayed for safety as we travel and for a good trip.

I still feel like it was a good trip, despite the “excitement” and loss of personal property.

So many things I’m thankful for. Keep in mind that we pulled into the hotel parking lot and parked at 9:47 p.m. We briefly discussed whether to go get some food first or go check in and take our stuff up to the hotel room. I wanted to check in asap simply because, well, I needed to go to the bathroom, and feel a bit more settled, before eating. I had no confidence that the next door McDonald’s was going to be open after 10, anyway, and wanted to ask the hotel check in desk about the McDonald’s hours. I also wasn’t sure if they’d “give away” our wonderful room at some point, for not checking in at a decent time.

The eyewitness had been able to see it from his balcony, overlooking the parking lot.

So, we grabbed our suitcase, our computer, the keys, my tablet and my purse and headed around the corner of the building and straight to the check-in counter.

I had just given the clerk my name, and she had asked me to read the screen and sign it when the fateful phone call came and she said, “Excuse me, but I have to call security.” I said, “Is everything ok?” and she said, “Well someone just reported a break in of cars in the parking lot.” I thought, “Well, it can’t be ours since we have a truck, not a car, and we just got here, so there hasn’t been time for that.”

Ken had wanted to go out and check, but decided against it until after we had checked in and gone up to the room. We then decided to head to the McDonald’s and get something small, as it had been 10 hours since had eaten lunch. On the way, he decided to detour and look at the truck. “Oh, Maaan,” I heard him say. “They got my truck. There’s a business card from the police on the window.” Then he decided to check the console, and that’s when we saw we’d been burgled.

We went back inside the hotel to talk to the check in clerk and asked her to call the police for us. However, the police were still on site, around the other side of the building, talking to another victim, and so Ken was able to talk to the Hapewell police. I took pictures, of course.

After we finished the police report, we headed over to the McDonalds, got some food, and brought it back to the lobby to eat, while we waited for the hotel manager to get in.

The only problem was, that we still had some things in the truck, and no way to keep the truck locked up anymore, since the window was merely taped up. So, the security official let us move the truck and trailer over to the front doorway, and he said he’d watch the vehicle all night, as he was pretty furious about the whole situation. He was pretty upset with himself for needing to be in the bathroom right then. He was upset that he hadn’t been able to see their license number when he did come out and chased them off the property. He was pretty upset as well that we had been robbed from. We were just thankful that he wasn’t hurt.

Ken and the security officer did the temporary “fix” on the window with cardboard and tape and moved the vehicle while we waited for the manager to get there. The manager eventually got in, and really didn’t have much to say other than, “I’m so, so, so sorry.” I mean, seriously, what do you EXPECT any of the staff to say? I really didn’t know, but for sure, they weren’t the ones doing the vandalizing, and by 11:35 p.m. I was ready for the day to be OVER WITH, so I could go lie down on that huge king sized bed waiting for me up in the room.

As we were later mulling over the events of the day, we drew many conclusions and things we were thankful for.

Here they are:

1) I’m thankful that we weren’t right on the scene when the crime was committed. My husband has a concealed carry permit, and I’d to think that he might have been tempted to use the right that he has, because it could have been bad. But, it wasn’t bad or dangerous for us, for which I’m very thankful.

2) I’m also thankful that we weren’t on the scene, because of all the ridiculously senseless killings that have been going on around our country for people who are in the way of criminals with an intent to commit crimes.

3) I’m incredibly thankful that they missed multiple other things that Ken had in the truck (and people have mentioned that you shouldn’t keep visible valuables)—in fact, nothing was visible. Not only was it pitch black outside, at nearly 10 p.m. in Atlanta, but the truck is dark, the seats were dark and what they stole was hidden away in a console. They left our amazing flashlight that works wonders for us when the power goes out, among many other things that were NOT taken. We found out that the thieves were going around - they were on a “spree” - taking only seconds to get in and out of vehicles taking whatever they could find. When I talked to my son, he mentioned that they often would jump in and out of cars looking for tech, guns and cash.

4) Ken had taken the BULK of his collected “junk” (aka, tools, equipment for the rental upkeep, etc) and left it in our garage at home before tossing our suitcase and pillow in the backseat.

5) Just as we had climbed out of the truck for the night, I had said, “I just don’t feel comfortable leaving all of your keys right here in the open glove compartment I’m going to put them in my purse and take them inside with me.” (Ken had told me to toss them in the open glove compartment earlier in the day.) It was a heap of keys to multiple rentals that we have, and our keys to our offices, and the Quilted Twins store buildings! Not that anyone in Atlanta would ever find the buildings all the way in Florida, but the total inconvenience of losing 30 or 40 keys would have been horrible. We have 9 keys alone to Quilted Twins doors on that ring!

6) The truck window that the vandals broke to get in was a window that did not work correctly anyway. It would roll down, but would not roll back up correctly, without help. So, now we have to get it fixed. (Insurance won’t cover it because our deductible is $1000 on BACK seat windows.)

7) The main thing they stole has a serial number, and can be traced easily enough when they try to pawn it. So, it would be real justice if they’d be caught in the process of pawning.

8) The other hotel where the criminals were busily breaking into cars had a video camera that got their license number (They hit up two neighboring hotels).

9) That an eye witness was watching the whole thing from his balcony right above the parking lot. He told us that it took him a couple of minutes to realize WHAT he was watching happening, as he had seen us LEAVE the vehicle, and then was amazed to see one of us being pulled out of the back window. It didn’t make much sense, until he realized he was watching a crime in progress and that it wasn’t US that he was seeing being pulled out of the back seat window.

Being grateful for small things - our hotel had a nice take-out breakfast.

10) We had decided to take cardboard and I had gone back in to grab a tape gun while getting my jacket at QT on the way to Atlanta. That tape gun ended up proving quite invaluable not only to us, but the cardboard was used to help another victim of the thieves at our hotel as well. (We thought we might have to tape some boxes back up to hold fabric, as we really had no idea what we’d encounter at the storage facility.) Little did we know we’d be taping truck window openings shut to keep critters and more vermin out during through the night.

11) We had gotten to see a beautiful double rainbow on the way up, and it reminded me of the promise that God made to us in His Word that He won’t ever destroy the earth again by water. This reminds me that the Lord is in control of my days, my minutes and my hours.

Double rainbow! God gave the rainbow to Noah as a sign that he would never flood the entire earth again with water.

12) We had gotten to see a beautiful double rainbow on the way up, and it reminded me of the promise that God made to us in His Word that He won’t ever destroy the earth again by water. This reminds me that the Lord is in control of my days, my minutes and my hours.

All of this thankfulness doesn’t take away the feeling of being vulnerable from the victimization that you experienced, but it does help.

Have you been robbed or burgled from? How did you feel? Did you ever get your items back? Share it with us, if you would, please?

Becky’s note - (I learned this while teaching English here in Poland, but also by listening to Judge Judy) - robbery involves force or threat of force (for example - getting beaten up or held up at gunpoint so that you give a person money or valuables), whereas burglary doesn’t involve force - (for example - stealing from your yard or house or car as long as you aren’t personally threatened while it is being done).

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Reflections - Feeling Vulnerable