Susan McGregor writes an open letter to the person who burgled her home in Northeast Valley.
To you, it was a couple of Wii gaming consoles and a backup computer drive. Your total haul would have been about $100, if that.
But you stole far more than that from our family when you broke in through our garage window in Northeast Valley mid-afternoon a few weeks ago.
You took our feeling of security with you. And that can't be replaced.
I wish you could have seen the results of your work. That night our children were so terrified you were going to come back they were physically shaking. Neither would sleep alone. They still both worry continually you will return.
You left your skateboard behind. Our children were so convinced you were going to come hunting for it they were both sick with worry.
We tried to tell them it was a good thing you'd left it, as the police would be able to fingerprint it and catch you. They didn't buy that. They were pretty convinced you'd come back in the middle of the night to get it back.
We did what the police suggested - took it inside and hid it away, until they could collect it. They still have it, so if you want it back that's where you can collect it. I wish you could have heard my child's sad voice, when we discovered his gaming console missing.
''Santa brought me that, Mum''. Yes, we can replace the console, but we don't much feel like it. Each time we play it, or even look at it, it will be a reminder of how a stranger broke into our home and stole from us.
On the day you broke in, our 7-year-old went into the house alone first, while my husband was bringing in our wheelie bins. The police reckon you probably fled when you heard them coming home.
I am extremely thankful my child didn't come face to face with you as you fled. You probably would have got a bit of a fright, but can you imagine what that would have done to him? I have nightmares just thinking about it. We didn't even realise you'd taken the external back-up drive from our computer. We only found out when our computer died.
''Hope you've got a good back-up,'' the technician said.
''Of course,'' we said, before noticing it was gone.
We thought we'd done the right thing backing everything up on a backup hard drive. We thought it was all safe. But you broke into our home and stole 10 years' worth of photos from us. You took the photos and videos of the lives of our children - the newborn shots, the baby photos, the first steps, the birthday parties, the first days of school. You took the lot.
You would probably be lucky to sell the hard drive for $20. To us it was invaluable. We felt physically sick. We were devastated. There were tears. A few days later, the technician phoned to tell us he'd been able to rescue the photos off the dead computer. The relief was immense.
However, our daughter is still horrified that you have stolen our photos. You see, she had learnt all about cyber safety at school and she knew you have to be very careful about where your photos end up. Now, a criminal has them. We've told her you will have wiped the photos off so you could sell the disk but she is worried sick you might still have them.
We are getting an alarm because of you. We're contemplating security cameras. This is because we no longer feel safe in our own home. If we choose to, we can replace the console. We now have our photos back. It will be almost like you never broke into our home, in broad daylight, one afternoon. Except it won't ever be like that, ever again. Because you DID break into our home. You stole from us. And you stole much, much more than a few of our possessions.
