[mookiemookie]

Five years ago I went through a bad breakup. I moved out quickly, found a nice-ish apartment to live in, and moved. I was there for five days when I came home from work one day to find my front door kicked in.

Someone had come in while I was away during the day. They took my kitchen knives (not even a nice set), a leather jacket, my cologne, my computer. my PS2, my XBox 360, a rolling suitcase and they had moved my TV by the door. They wanted to steal it, I guess, but didn't have time or couldn't carry it. I called the police, they came out and the first question they had was did I have the serial numbers of the things they stole. I didn't, so they said there wasn't much they could do for me. They tried taking fingerprints but couldn't get anything.

I felt raped and violated. It was an awful feeling. I've become security crazy now. I have an alarm, some other security measures, and I have two copies of all my serial numbers off of all my electronics. If you take nothing else from my story, take 10 minutes to write down your serial numbers and stash them someplace safe. It helps for insurance as well as the police.