Florida hates us.

Tim and I had a fantastic time in Ohio. It was so nice to see everyone, enjoy the beautiful weather, accomplish a lot of wedding stuff and just get away to our family and friends.

But then we came back to Florida. (I'll post the Ohio recap when I have access to our photos, but this is the post-trip story ...) I like to call this incident "Reason #426 we should leave Florida."

Tim and I had a direct flight to Tampa on Tuesday. We landed just before 2, called the shuttle service that Tim had used when he dropped his car off on Friday, and finally they picked us up and uh, shuttled us to his car. We loaded the car and were on our way. I was running late for work, so we were a bit stressed and hurried. I got to work, settled in and got a call from Tim around 6:30 p.m. The conversation went like this:

Tim: "Hon, guess what I came home to?"
Kristin: "A gift in the mail?"
Tim: "No, someone broke in to my place and stole a bunch of my stuff."

Whoa.

Long story short (well, shorter than what I could give), someone came in to Tim's place on Sunday. There were no signs of forced entry. Among the things they took:
- A DVD/VCR player
- A stereo (hon, I meant to ask you - were there CDs in there?)
- A broken surround-sound stereo system
- An unopened box of fruit snacks
- All of the white socks Tim had
- Stereo speakers (these were speakers Tim refused to take to Goodwill and I was insistent on parting with)
- The couch cover
- Four throw pillows
- A Bengals throw
- A Bluffton University blanket, perfect for napping
- A bottle of aloe
- An open box of Q-Tips
- A package of toilet paper
- Four bottles of Tide
- Tim's XM satellite radio receiver (this one replaced the one that was stolen out of his car a few months ago when he accidentally left the car unlocked)
- All of Tim's DVDs *except* the Reds/World Series collection. Yes, they cherry-picked the DVDs.

Among things they *didn't* take:
- Any kitchen appliances
- Any TVs
- Any CDs
- Shampoo
- Black socks
- Tim's camera, computer, MP3 player, golf clubs - all were with him on the trip or in the car.

They ransacked the guest bedroom and went through the master closet (although as Tim admitted, it looked a lot like it had before because it was a *bit* messy). They went through my scrapbooking stuff. They moved the bed. They took about $3,000 worth of stuff.

Tim filed a police report right away. The police got some fingerprints, and they interviewed some neighbors. Apparently one of the neighbors saw Tim's door open all day Sunday. (And apparently didn't do anything about it. Thanks, neighbor.)

Over the course of the next 48 hours, we discovered more missing items (like the Tide, which was discovered when I went to do laundry and realized I couldn't). We realized that Tim hadn't suspended his newspaper delivery, although by Sunday, when the break-in occurred, there were only two editions out there. We realized that if there was no forced entry, whoever had done it likely had a key. Our first inclination was that it was a member of the maintenance staff. But we're not even sure they have a key, because Tim isn't renting his condo. (Some of the units have been rented out because no one was buying them.) And the office staff said they've never had a problem with the maintenance staff and all of the maintenance workers have been with them for years.

So then we realized that the shuttle service had access to his keys (you have to turn your keys in when you park - they move your car to the back of the lot while you're gone, move it to the front of the lot when you return, and they do a lot of detailing on cars that are there). ***Disclaimer: It was not the smartest thing in the world to leave the house keys with the car keys. But we're from small-town America - I never would have thought about keeping them separate, because then I'd worry about losing my house keys. Now it will be the first thing on my mind.*** The shuttle service also knew he was out of town. They also had access to his address - registration and insurance in the glove compartment. It seems, sadly, that this is the mostly likely scenario: the shuttle service has some rotten employees and we were had.

We had some serious talks about what to do - in the short term and long term. Tim had the locks changed immediately. We're going to be smarter and more proactive about our safety - get insurance for our possessions, install additional locks or an alarm system, network more with the neighbors so they can watch over the place when we're out of town or we can report anything suspicious, use timers on the lights, make sure the complex keeps the exterior lights in working order, stop the paper when we go out of town, never give our house keys out with our car keys. We're not dumb people, we're just trusting people.

We thought about moving from the complex. We considered renting the unit out, renting a house for ourselves in south St. Pete. But there are a lot of unrented properties already in that area. And we can't afford a mortgage and a rent. We don't know if the next neighborhood would be better or worse than the current 'hood. We don't want to be landlords. We don't want to sink in to debt and be stuck in Florida forever. We've put time and work in to making that condo a home. The last thing I want to do while planning a wedding (it's in 3 months!), working full-time, taking a class and packing to move is look for a new place and rent out our old one. And we don't want to let someone chase us out, especially when it seems like we probably could have taken more steps to prevent this.

But we're safe. We have each other. And we didn't lose everything. It's just upsetting and angering to think that someone invaded our property, violated our sense of security and took our belongings while we were gone. I went to the condo yesterday for the first time since the trip, and every time I saw something missing or looked at a ransacked area, it broke my heart. I feel paranoid and betrayed, and I just want the police to find who did this. The condo complex was a nice place when Tim moved in two years ago. The developers had converted apartments to condos, and the people who were buying them were vested in staying longer than a 12-month lease allows. But the housing market stinks. When they couldn't sell units, they turned to renting them. And the turnover has been huge. The standards have dropped. And the quality of life has gotten less stable. I just keep hoping that more people will buy the units so we'll have more consistency and accountability from the residents. But clearly, I'm not in charge.

And last night, Tim's car wouldn't start. He got to his mailboxes, went to get back in his car, and it wouldn't start. This morning - it wouldn't start. We tried to jump it - it wouldn't start. We used my AAA membership to get a tow truck so we could take it to the dealership ... and the guy jumped it. Once it was running, we didn't stop it til it got to the dealership. Everyone seems to think Tim needs a new battery and possibly a new alternator. Tim decided that he's going to have the car checked out on Monday, so he's praying it starts enough times to get him through the weekend. I'm praying so, too, because I really thought he should just get it taken care of today.

In summary, we had a great time in Ohio. But since then, we've had a rough week. We're ready to catch a break. And I hope to post a few more recipe posts soon (because even if you don't care about them, I have them all in one place!) and post highlights of Ohio Trip August 2008.

-Kristin