posted
Or "burglarized" I suppose is the proper term. No one but the cats were home at the time, and they're safe and sound.
Ericka and I left about 8:15 for a little date night - dinner and a movie - and when we got back to the apartment about 12:30 the alarm was going off, the door had been kicked in, and we could see the bedroom light on from the window outside. Ericka called 911 while I started checking out the damage. I know, I should have waited for the police, but they took forever to get there. We had time to find the cats and figure out what major things were missing before they arrived nearly 20 minutes later. We filed our report, had maintenance come fix the door, and then we took the cats and stayed the night at a friends. As far as we can tell, they made off with our TV, two laptops, and our video camera. It seems they couldn't figure out how to turn on our living room lights (we use one of those foot button things which is on the opposite side of the room from the lights), and that combined with the fact that the alarm is pretty damn loud probably got them out before they could get anything else. The two desktop computer, PS3, digital camera, games, movies, and a bunch of other things were all there in plain view and yet they were left untouched. They did have time to go through nearly all our drawers, open (but not take) all of our wrapped Christmas gifts, and leave our refrigerator door open (actually, I think they may have taken a coke, but don't quote me on that), which puzzles me a bit. What dumb burglars. They could have used that time loading up more of our stuff.
Anyway, yes, we have insurance, so hopefully that will take care of our monetary loss if not our sanity and trust in people. The county CSI crew dusted for fingerprints this morning. They got some prints on a couple of the presents that were unwrapped, but who knows. They could just be our prints. One really bit of good news is that we were able to round up the serial numbers to all the major stolen items and get those to the police this afternoon, so if they try to pawn anything they'll be caught.
I do have a question for anyone that might know or wouldn't mind looking up the info for us. We'd pretty much already made up our mind to move when our lease ran up at the end of February, but given what's happened, we'd like to move sooner if at all possible. I know the complex is absolved of responsibility unless their negligence aided in the break-in, but we don't really want to hold them financially "responsible" so much as we want to just stop living there. But I'm sure "responsibility" includes loss of potential income due to a broken lease, so I have thought of a couple of things that might possibly constitute negligence on their part. For one, there is no longer anyone living on either side of us - hasn't been for a few months now - and thus there was no one near enough to even hear our alarm or any other noise during the burglary. Two, the complex no longer employs property security. And three, the door jam was pretty weak for them to have kicked in the door as easily as they did. Even the makeshift replacement maintenance did is several times stronger. Would these factors amount to enough justify breaking our lease, especially one that is up in two months anyway?
Thanks in advance, guys. I'm sorry if this all sounds a bit jumbled, but I'm still pretty shaken as I'm sure you can understand. I'll try to check back here a bit later tonight.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
that really sucks, i'm sorry you guys have to go through this. I'm glad the cats are safe and unharmed though.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
I'd just tell them that due to the break-in, plus those factors that you feel make another break-in likely, you no longer feel safe living there, and request they let you off your lease. And make growling noises (that is, mention legal options) if they refuse.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
They would almost HAVE to release you from your lease in order for you to avoid paying additional rent and/or penalties. They may be willing to do this if you make an issue of it to avoid publicity.
Unless you have it in writing (promotional materials often mention it) there is no requirement to have security on premise. If you are PAYING for extra security you may have a case, but it will probably cost as much in time and effort (or legal bills if you hire a lawyer) as you would pay in rent or penalties to win. I am glad you are all ok, and hope you stay safe.
Please let us know how it turns out.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
That's really scary - I didn't want to read and not post anything, but I don't know what your situation is like, having never been robbed.
Get a dog, I guess. We have two - a small GSD as an alarm system, and a Malamute as a deterrence system (they're actually horrible watchdogs as a breed, and ours in particular is worse than average).
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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As for the lease, if you can afford it, I'd rent the new place before your old lease is up. The company I'm with now let me pay half a month's rent to start moving in two weeks before my old lease was up, and I loved it!
We still had a scheduling snafu where we ended up only able to rent a UHaul from Friday night to 8am Saturday morning and had to call friends up in a panic to get all the large objects out right now, but it did give me two weeks to handle the rest of it (which still wasn't enough time and we were throwing stuff away on the last day).
I suddenly remember how much I hate moving. Good luck!
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I'm glad you and your loved ones are unharmed, roll. I'm pretty certain the absence of neighbors could not be considered negligence, but if they had security and stopped or diminished it, you might have a case. But as others have mentioned, bringing a suit can be expensive. I'm also pretty sure the strength of the door isn't an issue, unless you complained about it previously and they did nothing.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Thank you all. I knew I was grasping at straws trying to find a way to break our lease. It's pretty clear to me now that the only way out will be if they're willing to let us go. Threatening them with negative publicity might work, but I wouldn't feel quite right going that route. I'm going to talk to the management again on Monday and see if they might compromise and let us go at the end of January. In the meantime we're still trying to decide if finding another apartment or getting a house would be best.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
A house if you can afford it could have good equity.
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I'm glad you and your loved ones are unharmed, roll. I'm pretty certain the absence of neighbors could not be considered negligence, but if they had security and stopped or diminished it, you might have a case. But as others have mentioned, bringing a suit can be expensive. I'm also pretty sure the strength of the door isn't an issue, unless you complained about it previously and they did nothing.
