Like a good neighbor...

Remember when someone broke into our house? Remember? They kicked in the door in broad daylight and stole 2 TVs and an Xbox. Remember? 3:30 on a Friday afternoon and no one saw anything. Apparently State Farm remembers.

A few weeks ago we got a letter from State Farm informing us that we would have to have a security alarm installed or they would drop our homeowners’ insurance. Really? After one break in? Isn’t that why we pay insurance? To cover us in the event of a break in?

We immediately began to shop around for new homeowners’ insurance.

A few days later Misty came home late. She’d been out with a friend and returned home around midnight. (I know, it’s bizarre. But it’s true. She was really out that late.)

She called me, I assumed to tell me she was on her way. Not quite.

She told me she was driving around our block. She’d come home and started to turn into our driveway when she saw someone standing in the driveway. She veered back onto the road and continued around the block.

As we talked she circled back around toward our house. This time she saw the person crouching in the bushes at the corner of our house. Incidentally, it happened to be the corner just outside of where I stood talking to her on the phone.

I turned on a few lights and she circled the block again. When she passed the house again, he was gone. She drove around our neighborhood a few times, but never saw him again.

We called the police. I spent the next hour or so sitting in our darkened den watching out the window as a police cruiser drove up and down the surrounding streets to no avail.

So I’ve spent the last few days reluctantly calling security companies.

Today we had a dark sedan (with dark tinted windows) sitting in the street in front of our house. After about an hour, the car drove away without anyone entering or exiting the vehicle.

I’m starting to wonder about our neighborhood.

I do not, though, any longer disagree with State Farm’s idea that we need a security system. It will be installed soon.

I still think we’re going to shop around for new insurance.