Jogging Burglars

When I was 10 years old, my parent's home was robbed while we were away
for Memorial Day Weekend.  The robbers were titled "Jogging Burglars".
It was a commonly used "robbing-technique" at the time when jogging
became popular.

The process was as follows: burglars would jog through the neighborhoods
to get a lay of the 'land', people's schedules, homes that looked
valuable, and places around homes to store the goods. Then the burglars
would rob the house (day or night depending on the home's schedule) and
leave the items hidden near the house. Later they would return with a
vehicle to pick up the items. That way if people saw them at the house -
- it looked more like something was left for them versus an individual
being robbed.

My parents leave the car keys in the cars at home. When we were driving
home from the weekend we saw our car on the side of the highway approx.
3 miles from home. It was odd - but no one thought much about it,
thinking either cousins or friend needed it and something happened. When
we arrived home, my father and brother immediately left to go pick up
the car that was on the highway. Meanwhile, my mother, sister and I went
in the house. I remember distinctly, coming in and turning on the TV and
MASH was on. Immediately I heard my sister scream as she went into the
bathroom and my Mother gasped as she went into the dining room.

The bathroom was a bloody mess. They had broken into the house via the
second story bathroom window. They cut themselves on the window and
blood was everywhere. They even took the time to get out our bandage kit
to fix their wound. (Due to the blood left behind, the police were able
identify our burglars years later in St. Louis).  We recovered a few
items that they had taken, but none of my mother's sterling silver
dining room pieces.

Just about the same time my sister screamed, was when my mom noticed a
lot of things missing in the dining room. We all went and checked our
rooms to see what was missing. I don't remember all of the details from
then on, but I can still recall the horrifying feeling when I went into
my bedroom. Nothing was taken from my room, but the sheets on my bed
were lifted up. They had checked to see if I had stored anything between
my mattress pads.

I remember as a little girl being told that hiding things between the
mattress was a good idea. But to know that they too knew that - as well
as knowing someone that I didn't know was in my room and on my bed left
me feeling very vulnerable and scared.

We think that they were trying to steal the car radio from the car and
found the keys. So they went ahead and took the car. Turns out not much
gas was in the car and they didn't get very far :)

They also robbed a neighbors house approx. 4 houses down from ours. They
took a lot of guns from their house and ate cake from the fridge.

The police thought they would have taken more from my parent's home, but
in the middle of their robbery it seemed something spooked or scared
them. Or, it was thought that we had bug-bombs going in the house and
that maybe they got sick to their stomachs from the bug-bombs.

My mother's wedding ring had a diamond missing (a smaller diamond that
surrounded the main diamond) so she had left it home for the weekend
because it needed to go to the repair shop. The burglars found it and
took it. The next spring my father was out in the driveway working on
the car and guess what he found in the driveway? My mother's wedding
ring. It had survived the whole winter in the drive way and not a thing
was broken or lost. Other than the one chip diamond that was already
missing. Again, we think when they were trying to steal the car it fell
out of their bag? No one knows, but it was a great relief to have it
back.

Being robbed left me feeling so vulnerable - a scared, timid, just icky
all over feeling.