Well it has been 4 weeks and a day since the break in and our laptops, hard drives, some adapters and cords, Andrews nice LED tactical flashlight were stolen (along with 3 bananas!) and our things were thrown askew all in the flash of an hour in the middle of the day when we were out and about. The clean up was not so bad and we were just so relieved that our passports and other important documents were left untouched as well as my jewelry (tells you I have minimal jewelry worth much- just sentimental!) Even in the midst of the police coming and checking for fingerprints (which left a mess on its own to clean up), we held ourselves in tact. My breakdown didn't occur until it dawned on me that they took our hard drives, the one with ALL the videos from my phone, mostly of Avinelle, since she was 3 months old! 😳 Now I have an iPhone and most people have iCloud set up and back ups on their computers, etc. BUT, about 5 days before we left the US, we were trying to back up my phone to my computer and alas I did not have enough space on my computer! So I had the brilliant idea of transferring Every. Single. Video. directly from my phone to one of our hard drives. With no back ups anywhere else. NO WHERE. Oh yes, and you know how people will text videos to friends and family and you could have them saved there? Ya I deleted ALL videos and pictures to continue to make space on my phone. Then after doing so we had enough space to back my phone up to my computer, so all set. So THEN I cried. The precious memories of her as a little baby, her first time crawling, walking, saying first words, etc. Gone. Forever. This has been the hardest part of this injustice of what happened to us. I am okay though. What if we would have gotten hurt? What if something would have actually happened to our precious Avinelle and not just her memories in video form?
Here are some great things that have come of this situation: 1) I have actually sent multiple videos via text to Andrew and family members, so I set up a google account for people to share them with me there (if you are reading this and are one of these people, let me know! I will send you the email address and PLEASE send me the videos!!!) 2) Within 24 hours we had people promising enough money to replace everything we lost monetarily and even UPGRADE our laptops!!! What? How incredible!!!! So so grateful to you for helping us out, you know who you are 😉 3) I will reiterate again- NONE of us were hurt or showed up during the hour of the ransacking so WHEW!!! 4) The apartment owners replaced the locks the VERY next day. Yessss! (There are two locks that click 3 times and if you are indoors a "bolt" of sorts can slide over as well) 4) So we found out some details. The locksmith that replaced our locks said that most likely it was a copy of our keys, or like the keys are fairly common and "tweaked" to be able to get in. That is freaking scary! OH, and this is comical- they decided to lock the door (just the bottom one, one click). The apartment video footage has one camera outside the main apartment door to enter the building. Two guys wearing ball caps came in, then a 3rd one came in after getting a phone call, then a 4th one stayed outside the whole time "keeping watch". It took them all of an hour. They all kept their faces from the camera and wore hats. They came in empty handed. The 3 guys left with suitcases/bags with all our stuff. They wore gloves because no fingerprints were left behind. The conclusion is they had been watching us!! I take comfort in the fact that they had no intention of hurting us if they were keeping watch to make sure we weren't there or on our way in… We have been told that in all honesty unless we are willing to pay the police, they won't really "find" them. Unfortunately things are just corrupt here and we aren't willing to go that route. We would love for our stuff to be found and turn up!
Here is where we are at. We are not angry. We are not mad, we do not feel that we need to be vindicated. I believe that this kind of thing can happen in any big city you move to. (This city we've been told is around 2 mil) This situation is most definitely unfortunate but we have CHOSEN to not look at this new land and these new people in a different light because of what happened. What is the use of that? Where would that leave us? So we have decided to be positive, thankful for our safety and for friends helping us replace our stuff, and believe for the best!