Dear Universe: WTF?

So, yesterday my mother came home from the hospital. Yay! I was going to stop by and visit her on the way to class today; accordingly, I left work at 4:30 feeling glad about seeing her and looking forward to class.

The phone rang as I was in the parking structure, walking to my car. It was Dragon.

"Hey, did you have any problems with the garage door this morning? It won't open."

"No. Sorry."

Then, a few minutes later, the phone rang again. And again, it was Dragon.

"Hi. I've just called the police. Someone's broken into our house. The computer room is trashed. I've got the kids outside and we're waiting for the police."

"Okay. I'll come home then." Call to school admin, asking her to explain to instructor that I will not be at class. Call parents, asking Dad to perhaps not tell Mom about break-in. (He does anyway, I later find out.)

Dragon was still waiting for the police when I got home 20 minutes later (boy, that felt like a long drive.) I'd spent the drive home having visions of calling all of the banks and credit card companies to cancel/freeze accounts, and having to look up everyone's number without benefit of the Internet. I went in to check things out, being careful to not touch anything, and confronted a confusing mess in the computer room. The camera and iPod (sniff) were missing, but the computers, although disconnected and in six different places, were still there. Credit cards, though scattered everywhere, were also still there. Papers were everywhere. The living room was also somewhat messy, and the DVD player and PlayStation 2, along with some games, had vanished. Still there: TV, DVDs, and digital photo frame. Upstairs, most of the dresser drawers had been dumped out, and my jewelry box was in pieces and mostly empty. Still there, though: wedding bands and engagement ring.

Soon the police, in the form of a nice female officer, arrived to collect evidence. (Noteworthy: "There's a beautiful handprint on this window. Unfortunately, I think it belongs to one of your sons.") Reports from the neighbors indicate that several middle-school-aged kids were the culprits; they were seen emerging from the house with a sack (my pillowcase, that would be).

So, not as bad as it could have been; big mess, but for the moment, most of the valuable items are still here. (Many of them will be relocated shortly.) We have our suspicions as to who these middle schoolers might be, and we have attentive neighbors.

On the other hand, I could cheerfully rip the lungs out of said middle schoolers, or perhaps their parents, because Boy Wonder is freaked right the hell out by all this. Thanks, guys; you left us most of our stuff, but now my five-year-old is afraid to go to the damn bathroom without me. Because there were Bad Guys in our house, and our closets, and what if they come back?

They didn't cover this in the parenting book, I don't think.