Having your home robbed is a violation like no other. Now imagine having your home robbed while you're in it! With your kids! That's what happened to a Colorado mom this week -- the mother and her two children were tied upby burglars who locked the family in a closet so they could raid the house.
According to police, the mother -- whose name has not been released to protect her family from further trauma -- and her children were actually out of the house when two men broke in. When they got home just before noon, they surprised the thieves and entered into a nightmare!
Cops say the mom and her kids were grabbed, tied up, then shoved in the closet. The burglars made off with mom's cellphone as well as plenty of their valuables.
Terrifying, right? It's exactly what a mom fears happening to her and the kids in their own home.
I can't imagine how traumatized those poor little kids are! I know families whose homes were broken into when they weren't there, and the kids had trouble sleeping for weeks after the fact. For the kids to actually be there, to actually be tied up and to see their mom rendered helpless, has to be that much worse.
But I can't help but breathe a giant sigh of relief knowing that everyone is OK. The mom, both kids ... they're likely emotionally scarred, but physically OK.
That's a win ... I guess?
Hard to face, I know, but I live in an area that -- like this mom's town of Bloomfield, Colorado -- has seen an uptick in burglaries. It scares me, especially as someone who works from home and is therefore around all the time. But the fact is, being home and being OK IS a win.
A US Justice Department report shows that of the 3.7 million household burglaries that occur on average every year, about 28 percent (nearly one third) happen when someone is home. About 12 percent of all households violently burglarized while someone was home faced an offender armed with a firearm.
Scarier still? About 7 percent of the time, a household member is a victim to violence -- from simple assault to rape.
Seven percent may not sound like much, but 7 percent of 3.7 million is about 259,000 victims of violence! That's more than one quarter of a million people!
People are brutalized when burglars find them at home. People are sometimes killed when burglars find them at home.
As much as I'd just prefer homes that are never robbed, if it comes down to losing my stuff or losing my life (or my child's), I know what I'm going to choose!
I just wish we didn't live in a world where this was the choice ... I know this story is going to follow me for days, as I double and triple check my locks.
Do you worry about burglars when you're home? What do you do to protect your family?
Image via marc falardeau/Flickr