Bad news...our home was burglarized!

The wife was at work, and I was just getting back from my ride when, as I approached my house, I saw a Sac. County Sheriff's car in front of my neighbor's house. He's been having some domestic issues --- his wife left him recently and they're in the midst of a messy divorce --- so my first impression was the cops had gotten called for that.

So I innocently hit the garage door opener, came into the garage, and as I put the key into the firedoor I noticed it was unlocked, which was strange. I was thinking well, maybe I forgot to lock it on my way out, and as I stepped into the kitchen, I looked across into our living room and saw the rear window had been broken, and the back slider was wide open! What the heck? Then I noticed my Orbea lying on the dining room floor (I had left it in the den), and it came to me..."I've been robbed!" Man, I can tell you, that is one terrible feeling! And in that same instant, I put it together why the cops were next door.

So, I went out and walked up to the squad car and told him I got robbed. My neighbor says, "Yeah, welcome to the party!"

He came over and we went through the entire house. They say you feel violated when this sort of thing happens, and it is definitely true. Like I said, they had my Orbea laying on the dining room floor, as if at first they were going to take it, but ended up not doing so, for whatever reason. Thank goodness, both my De Rosa and the Sports Tourer were also safe, as were my wife's bikes, and I had been on the Bianchi for my ride. So, the good news is, all they got was all my wife's jewelry {{looks over shoulder }} and not any of our 6 (7) bikes!

Turns out, the cops said there has been a rash of this in our general and surrounding neighborhood lately, all during the day, and usually in the morning right after everyone leaves for work. The insurance guy said he had 50 claims last month alone for the Sacramento area. They suspect it's a gang of local Russian kids. Brinks had a $99 Basic Install special going on, so we got one of those, along with some upgrades and an outside siren. Now, if any door or window is opened, or anyone moves in the house, it will go off.

The CSI guy said houses still get robbed even though they have alarms, so I've started locking up my bikes in the house with both cables and U-Locks. But just to be sure, I had some sections of heavy-duty tube steel cut at a local steel shop yesterday, and my father-in-law is going to weld them together this weekend for a mini bike rack of sorts for my garage. Which my wife is ecstatic over, as my bikes will finally be out of the house!

I'm going to bolt and epoxy the rack to the garage floor, and drill 1-inch holes into the top piece through which to pass the U-Locks, which I think will be about as much as I can do to make the bikes safe.



John