We are sorry that it's been a while since we've posted, we were planning an entry about how much fun that we had over Christmas, but other things haven taken precedence. Some of you know parts of this story, some are hearing it for the first time, so we will start from the beginning.
On New Years Eve, I got a strange call from my friend Madeline, who was coming over to visit the cats and make sure they were doing alright. She said that when she came over to the house to check on them, there was a man sitting in front of my computer in our kitchen with all the lights off. She walked in to find him there, and said that he didn't seem dangerous, so she started asking some questions. He told her that he knew us from when he and his wife adopted a dog from us (one of Juno's pups), and that we didn't technically know that he was in our home. He said that he had come over to say hi to us, that the door was open so he just walked in, said Hello, and thought that he heard someone reply. He came in, looking for the 'person,' and laughed that it turned out to just be one of the cats. Madeline agreed that this was funny, then went upstairs to call me.
I was shocked, as you might imagine. Nate and I were just getting dressed to make a reservation with Nate's dad Graham and girlfriend Kate, and I really was at a loss for what to do. Nate was listening to the conversation, and called our friend in Richmond who used to be on the RPD, and she sent an officer over - when Madeline got back downstairs he was gone. Our computer had been unplugged when he got there, and he was nice enough to unplug it again when he left. Madeline called her husband Josh and they decided to spend the night; they turned on all the lights, ordered pizza and had New Years at the Bells.
We got home that Sunday, and walked in the house. It was obvious that he had been smoking inside; the house smelled thickly like smoke. Madeline had said that she thought that he might have drank a bottle of our champagne (a wedding gift), so we went looking around. We found bottles of wine and liqueur that had been drank and put back where they came from. All in all, he drank 11 bottles of wine, two full bottles of hard liqueur, and two bottles of beer; there may be more, finding those was like going on a scavenger hunt. The empty beer bottles were in our back rec room (??).
Since the damages were so much more than the police had filed the first night, we called and had an officer come over to our house. Officer Ali said that he was already in jail - he had taken a full bottle of Jose Cuervo to the local Pizza King, not paid for his meal, and apparently he felt so strongly about someone not leaving the Pizza King parking lot that he was holding on to their bumper as they drove down the road. They got him for not paying for his meal, public intoxication, and he had also passed fake checks there in the previous weeks. She said that she could file a report, but that the most we could really do was to try to recoup our damages, which we would probably never get back from him. Ironically, the police were trying to figure out where he had stolen the bottle of tequila from; ours was missing.
Once this whole thing began, we were immediately concerned about what had happened to his wife, who we know and adore. On New Years, our RPD friend also sent an officer to her home, to make sure she was safe, but we had no way of contacting her. Once we got back, we went over to see her. The two of them got married this August; Nate and I were at the wedding. She said that they went on their honeymoon, and he just started drinking; he had previously been a recovering alcoholic for 5 years. He turned mean, and moved out of her home just seven days after their wedding (she is working on an annulment). Once he had left, she realized that all of her alcohol, including her cooking Sherry, had been consumed and the bottles returned to their places, which prompted our own search. He had apparently been basically homeless and drifting since the end of August, and just made it to our house over Christmas.
Since the incident, we have changed all of our deadbolts (it's unclear how he actually got in, but there was a spare key that was left for someone who was supposed to do construction on our home but never came). We found that he emptied our loose change jar completely, including the Malagasy coins that I had stored in there, and the Euros. We have burned more candles in the past few weeks than ever before, but thanks to everyone who gave us candles for Christmas and past holidays, the house is getting back to smelling like normal. We found out from the computer browsing history that he started using the computer on Monday the 27th, and Madeline found him on Friday the 31st, which is super creepy. I spoke with our neighbors, and they said that he didn't turn on a single light in the entire time he was here (they would have seen it), and no one ever saw him come and go. The computer confirms this; he searched YouTube videos almost constantly, with only a few hours break here and there, at totally random times.
Luckily, nothing too large was stolen and as fas as we can tell he couldn't access any of our personal files. My computer, which he was on, had just had windows reloaded (lucky!), and none of the passwords were saved. It has, however, left us feeling jaded and uncomfortable.
So welcome to 2011 everyone! :) It's gotta go up from here, right? Hope your new years was more mundane.... in a good way.
-Justine and Nate
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