Last Monday morning I got a call from my son's junior high school. He was panicked because someone had made off with his iPhone. We followed protocol and had service suspended, made a report, and even offered a no-questions-asked reward for the phone's safe return. We were disappointed that no one returned the phone. My son spent all of his allowance money that he was saving for spending money on his upcoming mission trip to replace the phone.
While away on our annual family Thanksgiving trip to Mississippi, my husband received a phone call from the bank that provides his corporate credit card. The operator informed him that a suspicious charge was made to his account in another state earlier that week. He had not been to that other state in several weeks, and he was not there at the time of the call. The operator suspended all transactions on his card, and is reissuing a card with a new account number. We thought that to be pretty weird, especially since my husband had physical possession of his card, but the new charge was made by swiping a card. His number was stolen and the crooks made a brand new card! Thankfully, the bank's fraud department was on top of it. We went on about our holiday business.
The day after Thanksgiving, shortly after I got out of the shower and my husband had gone out to the woods, I got a call from our bank informing me that a strange charge for about $260 was pending on my debit card. I did not know anything about this charge, especially since it was made in Malaysia - a country I have never been to, especially not with my debit card. The fraud department picked it up, denied the charge, and issued me a new debit card. I got a little bit freaked out at the coincidence. I quickly had the bank put a fraud warning on all of our accounts with the bank. I found it odd that Matt's card number had been stolen, and so had mine - the two accounts were in no way linked except that Matt and I are married. Weird.
Yesterday my neighbor came over. She was upset. She said that our other neighbor spotted a strange man in a white hoodie creeping around in her backyard, "casing the place". She filed a police report, and gave the police the footage from her newly-installed security cameras. He did not enter her home, but he might have, had it not been for the security cameras scaring him off. Quite frankly, I'm surprised at the nerve of would-be home robbers. This is Texas, and you never know who might be sitting atop a small arsenal, ready to blow your head off. Homestead laws... you have to be one bold dude to break into houses.
All of these things happened within the past 10 days. It's upsetting to think that people would intentionally invade my space, my privacy, my home, or my bank account to attempt to enrich their lives at the expense of my own. You haven't any right to any of my money, my things, or my family members. You haven't any right to intimidate my neighbors and create fear in a neighborhood that was otherwise peaceful and quiet. You haven't any right to create inconvenience to me or my community because of your selfishness. And you're quite lucky that no one has caught you yet.
Thankfully, the only thing we've lost is an iPhone. While it was an expensive replacement, it doesn't compare to what we potentially lost between two large charges to our credit and debit cards, and a house full of personal property. But what really pains me is that anyone thinks that it is okay to come and take what isn't theirs. To take what someone else has worked hard for is really a slap in the face to those of us who pay our debts, buy our own homes and everything in it, and treat their money and lifestyle with responsibility and respect. Never have I taken from anyone else's pocket. Never have I taken from someone else's home. And never have I disrespected someone so much as to sneak the burden of a large debt onto someone else so that I could have something nice for myself. To put it bluntly, I feel violated. I feel disgusted. And I feel angry.
My family and I have made it a point not to be stingy with our money, our time, or our home. We have never turned anyone away who was truly in need. We give to local charities, we have helped out family members, and we have helped out friends. We serve. We love. We give. I guess that's why it pains me so much that someone would circumvent our generosity and take from behind our backs. It's just cruel.
I have always encouraged giving at this time of year - and it is my prayer that these few crooked individuals don't sway my heart away from that. And I pray that my giving spirit would not be jaded by those who would try to convince me that it is better to steal than to take what is given. I do not want my holiday joy to be linked to the wicked spirits of the grinches of our world that try to cast an ugly shadow on an otherwise glorious time. Let my heart be focused on celebrating what is good, and pure, and holy, and wonderful about the Christmas spirit, not on those who would try to crush it.
But don't be fooled: my generous spirit has nothing to do with my wonderful accuracy or my itchy trigger finger. It would definitely be in any thief's best interest to avoid me, my big black lab, and my handgun this holiday season.
Merry Christmas! (Now, get off my property!)
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