Hey, Teacher.

Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

That, my friends, is the question of the hour. Only it sounds more like this:

Who stole my great grandmother's ring from my jewelry box?
Who stole the necklace Matt's mother gave him when he was confirmed from his cuff-link box?
Who took our iPods from the office?
Who took all of our change off our shelf?
(I think you're getting a hang of the pattern, here).

Last Tuesday (around Midnight) we arrived back in the U.S. after our marvelous honeymoon in Rome. That same evening, I noticed that my childhood pacifier had been moved from my jewelry box, and I was exceedingly irked. As I went to place it back in the box, I was greeted with several gaps. Some rings were missing! I told Matt, but he was certain I'd misplaced them.

The next day, he noticed the change was gone. And an irreplaceable knife.

We continued to discover things, here and there, that had seemingly disappeared during our trip to Rome. Nothing big. The laptop was still there, the camera, my very expensive flute, my most expensive jewelry - kitchen supplies. The stuff actually worth money was still safely in our clutches.

Let's not kid around, though, they stole thousands of dollars worth of property anyway...without breaking any windows.

But here is what doesn't make sense:
- Why not take all of it? (Don't worry, we have a theory)
- Why not the big stuff?
- Why the jewelry, when women obviously know their jewelry?
- Who were these people?

So here is theory #1:

While we were gone, we had maintenance done on our place. A leak was ruining the ceiling/wall, so they knocked it out, fixed it, replaced the wall. While the landlord denies it (although his story has changed 3 times already), we know of several instances during which these maintenance workers were in the building without the landlord present. The landlord also denies that the workers ever entered our bedroom. Well, tell that to the drywall all over my clothes, and the panel of new wall in the bedroom...

Why they went into the office is beyond me. It also looks as though they were under a time constraint, since they picked and chose what they'd take.

Or: because they do maintenance on multiple properties maybe they feel like it's safer to take little things from multiple places.

Here is theory #2:

We talked to the landcare guy who lives on site. He was saying that as the old tenants (of this apartment) were moving out, three teenage boys snuck into the building. They attempted to take bikes, and sure enough, they succeeded in taking change jars and jewelry from the girls who lived here. No one filed a police report, though, and apparently the boys only got in because the doors were unlocked.

But, while this theory fits somewhat - here are the flaws:
If 3 teenage boys have unlimited time in an unattended apartment, you can guarantee they aren't going to take a few gadgets and gizmos. Not in this city. Also, how would they have gotten in...unless someone unlocked the door for them?

The landlord swears up and down that the doors were never unlocked. That's a lie. The day we moved in, we found the back door unlocked. And, since we know he wasn't with the maintenance folks the whole time...who says they didn't leave it unlocked and go to lunch (since they have no keys)? Maybe, then, nervous boys DID come in and rush - looking for the things that seemed expensive.

---

Obviously, whoever robbed us has no idea of what expensive jewelry looks like. My great grandmother's ring is, in my opinion, priceless. It's the only thing of hers that I've ever owned. But - that being said - monetarily it's worth very little. It's costume jewelry. They chose that ring over a butterfly ring, sitting right next to it, which has opal and ruby in it...(actually worth money). They didn't take my expensive watch. They didn't take my expensive necklaces.

And, obviously, they touched stuff. Let's hope they weren't smart enough to be wearing gloves.

Sock it to 'em.

So close, husband. So close.