As most of you know my sister and a friend have been staying with us for the last couple of weeks. My baby sister (18 years between us) has been living in Darwin for the last several years. After ending a difficult relationship with a young army man who suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder my sister finally decided to come back to Victoria for a fresh start. She sold many of her belongings and packed what was left into her car and brought a female friend along for the adventure. Her whole life was packed into her car (her pride and joy, fully paid for and a little prettied up with custom number plates and red to boot - red ones go faster you know!)
We live in a semi rural area and it is usually quiet around here. The girls had barely been here a week when somebody broke a rear window in my sisters car and stole belongings worth thousands of dollars. (handbags,cash, jewellery, cards etc, sunglasses,cameras (all pics of my sisters children) and more) Perhaps you are thinking they were foolish to leave valuables in their car and perhaps that is a fair comment but we are crammed into an already overcrowded house and the girls only brought inside their swags, a few clothes and shoes, necessities to ease the congestion in the house. Fortunately their laptops were in the house. The car was parked in our driveway, locked and alarmed and we didn't hear a thing. (We are assuming they disabled the alarm) This was upsetting enough as the girls struggled to get ID items replaced from interstate and with nothing to prove who they are. The girls both found temporary jobs within days of arriving and were in the process of applying for rental property. Everything came to a standstill as they waited for new cards, licences etc to be processed and mailed to them. Money was yet another issue.
Then the straw that broke the camels back! The thieves (police said and we assume it was probably the same people) returned 6 days later and stole my sisters car, had their fun, dumped it, filled it with aerosol cans and set fire to it. We were woken at 5am Friday morning to be notified that the car had been stolen and burnt out. My sister was totally heartbroken and devastated. Her friend was too of course.(she also lost a considerable amount of property in the car) I will never understand why some people feel the need to steal from others or to damage property. The car was burnt beyond recognition with absolutely nothing salvageable. There was simply a shell left. The police identified it by the number plates which were found beside the wreck.
After considering their options my sister and her friend have returned to Darwin at considerable expense(hire car which was not covered by insurance).I hope they might come back to visit some day but I doubt it will be anytime soon. I suspect such an awful 'welcome' to our city will leave a long lasting aversion with them. We feel badly this happened at our place even though we know it isn't our fault. It has reduced my own sense of security knowing that people who would do such things have been lurking around our house twice without us even knowing they were here! If only these thugs knew what heartbreak and hurt they cause by their criminal activities. I guess the sad reality is that they simply don't care.
I hope everyone else has had a better week. Enough shadows, now I'm going to share some pictures of Max and Cheby enjoying their first baths.
wishing you sunshine in your shadows
Helen
