"This would never happen to me."

Hello everyone. This past Thursday was one of the scariest days of my life. That day was an

eye opener and a reality check for us. It's something I never want to go through again and

it's something I'm struggling to get past.

Thursday morning, I dropped Nico off at school and walked home. I had a couple of errands

to run so I left right away. I came home briefly @ around 10:00 a.m. I left again because I forgot

something but I returned an half hour later. As I was driving past my home to go park in the garage, I noticed a black kid walking past our home. I didn't think much about it. We have cameras mounted in the front and in the back of our house and they are taping 24/7. We

have a sun porch that is connected to the back of the house. There is only a screen door,

so it's easy to enter the sun porch. So, I came through the back way. I locked our main backdoor

but not the screen door. I put my stuff down on the kitchen table and went

down to the basement to do laundry. When I finished I turned to walk up the stairs when

I saw this black guy staring @ me. It was the same black guy I saw a couple of minutes ago walking down the street.

He was in the sun porch for a minute and a half before we came face to face.

He was wriggling the door handle, trying to open it when I saw him. I ran up the stairs,

screaming " GET THE F**K OUT OF HERE!" " I'M CALLING THE POLICE!" etc.

He mumbled twice about how he was looking for his buddy. He finally left. I stood there for

a couple of minutes. just trying to process what just happened. Wondering if it

really happened. I finally snapped out of it and went and locked the garage door and closed

the gate. I then called Vince and told him what happened. He told to call the police, which

I did. They came right away. When we viewed the tape, I was in for another big shock.

The cameras showed him walking up the FRONT door first and looking in and wriggling

that door knob. He continues to try but fails. So, he walks away but immediately gets on the phone. But what is really crazy is as he was walking away from the front door, I was walking in the back door. Seeing that, everything changed. The cop took my statement and told me

he would be in touch. That night 2 cops came over to look @ the tape. They wanted to see if

they recognized him. Surprise!!! They did. He has been arrested twice, ( one was last week )

for breaking and entering and theft. They caught him and a buddy walking down the

street carrying a big flat screen T.V. We made copies of the tape and handed it over to

the police, which will make this a " slam dunk" case, as Vince would say. He was the same guy

3 weeks ago that came to the front door trying to get in. Montana spooked him off then. We think he was " casing out the place".

They targeted us for the T.V. I thank god that he was alone and that I had that main

backdoor locked. I'm going crazy with the thoughts of " What if". Well, as our

luck would have it, that wasn't the end.

Friday, I left to pick Nico up for school when, I SAW him. He was on the school

playground. Needless to say, I freaked out!!!! I called 911 right away. He was with 2

younger kids, roughly around Nico's age. But as the cops were coming he took off.

He ran across the street and into the alley. The cops got him. They arrested him, but

was free that night. Ready for another shock???

He lives down the block from us and those kids were his family members. They go to Nico's school!!!

We have spent the weekend rearranging the living room and installing dead bolts. We are having someone come out to give us an estimate on a steel door for the back. We still

have to buy shades or blinds for our french doors so no one can look in.

This was our " dream home " and now I don't want to be here anymore. I'm jumpy and very

nervous. I haven't slept since this happened. I'm hoping with time I'll start

feeling better and secure again. I don't want to be the " victim " and give him that power over me.

Of course, Nico does not know about any of this. I guess the next step to take is

to work on feeling better.

We hope everyone is doing good. Lots of love to all of you.