Monday Musings: Of Deux and Karma

 For those who read my last post and wondered what happened to Part “deux” …

So, this happened (And I only wish it was an April Fool's joke!!)

Mirjam and I haven't seen each other for nearly a month, but we got 4 days/3 nights this week by driving 1,400 miles (and 5 countries) in 2 days, which was fun as we both enjoy road trips. However, at the last lunch break, 5 hours before getting to her place, Mirjam got a call from a neighbor saying her place was burglarized that morning at 5 a.m.

Because the neighbor couldn't see inside, he didn't know the extent of the burglary, only that he'd come across 2 guys lowering 3 TVs from a semi-exposed first floor balcony to the street below. (The only remotely happy part of this event was that Balcony Boy apparently dropped one of the TVs, which landed (and broke) on the head of Street Boy. And, that, my friends, is karma at its bitchiest best.)


Obviously, getting the news was a bit of a shock, and we were dealing with that as we left the restaurant... only for Mirjam to discover an hour later that she'd left her handbag (with passport and $$) in the restaurant. We turned around and it was hard to find the restaurant, because it was just another hole in the wall off the freeway and I couldn't find the receipt, but we did eventually retrace our steps!

Luckily, the bag and contents were safe and off we went again. Now, 2 hours later getting to the house, we nervously hoped for the best all the way, but unfortunately, the house was completely trashed. They'd ransacked nearly every drawer in the house, upended all the beds, took all the electronics they could (before they were disturbed.)

We are so grateful to our neighbor, because when we opened the door, there were at least 10 bags, backpacks and suitcases full of food, clothes, accessories and stuff that the 2 fuckwads had filled during the hours they were inside the house. The thing that made me the angriest was the half-eaten cheese, meats and snacks they'd left after having a meal in the kitchen. Unbelievable. (Still makes me mad!)


We called the cops and 4 came out, including 2 Guardia Civil, who are basically semi-military police. They did their thing, told us what to do the next morning and said we could now clean as they had pictures, etc. Mirjam was exhausted, so we rebuilt the bed, changed ALLLLLLL the sheets in ALLLLL the beds and then she went to sleep. I was way too wound up, so I literally spent all night cleaning. I didn’t want her to see/deal with the mess in the morning and by 8 a.m., and I know it's sounds funny, but I'd taken back the house, and it was clean, tidy and ours again.


We spent the rest of the day unloading the van we'd driven from Holland, filled with furniture, for the cottage we're renovating and that was a great way of taking our mind off the whole robbery.


One final note on the craziest of crazy days, we were returning to the house, now with an empty van, when we got lit up by the Guardia Civil. I thought I'd just taken a wrong turn and it took a few repeated requests (which turned into gentle commands!!) for me to understand they wanted me to open the back of the van. Oh crap. Yes, no problem. I’m all over that.


The 4 officers were, I think, a bit disappointed to not find stuff in the van, because we later found out that another home (of a foreigner) was burglarized in our town on that same day. Because we had a van, with Dutch license plates, I really think that they thought we were the robbers!

PS: We still love this very quirky place and "Only in Spain" may be my next tattoo.