Makes me so MAD!!!

We were robbed Friday night -- or sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. Not only do I feel kind of violated and creepy, but I'm just so MAD, both at myself for allowing it to happen and at the jerk who felt he had the right to steal my property.

I am usually very careful about making sure the van is locked at all times. When we go somewhere together, I'm the one always reminding Chris to lock the van. When I pull into our driveway and get out of the car I automatically hit the lock button on my keychain, sometimes more than once. But Friday night, I messed up.

Janelle has started going to get the mail for me from the mailbox up at the corner of our street. She loves to do it, and it saves me the trouble of doing it myself. On Friday, I had actually checked the mail already while I was out running errands, but it hadn't come yet. I had left the mail key in the van, thinking I'd just check again next time I went somewhere. So, when Janelle asked if she could get the mail, I unlocked the van from inside the house so she could get the mail key. I didn't remind her to lock it back up again. And I forgot to hit the darn button myself. It would have taken half a second. But I forgot.

I didn't need to get in the van again until yesterday afternoon. I opened the driver's side door and found a couple of CD cases and other miscellaneous items on the driver's seat. I knew what that meant. Someone had been going through my stuff. I immediately checked the opening in the console where we keep the GPS — one of my most prized possesssions since we've moved to this unfamiliar city. Sure enough, it was gone. So were all my favourite CDs that I keep in easy access right between the front seats. The DVDs and CDs kept over the passenger side sunshade were there. So were both CD wallets that we store in the compartment under the passenger seat. Only my favourite CDs were gone. I was concerned about the car because we don't have automatic locks on it, so Chris rarely thinks to lock it when he comes home. I checked, and could tell that they had been in it because the driver's side door was not fully closed, but nothing was taken.

I'm really mad about losing the GPS. Chris's dad gave it to us for Christmas last year, and we really loved having it, and obviously used it often since we've moved. We're heading to Indiana in a couple of weeks. Are we going to have to use (gasp!) a map? I'm mad about losing the CDs, a few of which I can't replace. But mostly I'm mad at myself. I learned a lesson. I just wish this lesson didn't have to be quite so expensive!