Have you been stolen from?
Have you been stolen from?
Has someone or something stolen from you? Do you know who/what it was? Did it affect you? Do you care?
Doesn't have to be serious.
Share your stories!
Yes! Two days ago, someone stole my bike. That is, I had parked it (and locked it) in a bike garage monitored by CCTV at the train station where I commute and when I came back from work my bike was gone and only my broken lock was left. However, as I looked around a little the thieves had not moved it far, only down a floor into the premium "bike hotel" area that is an actual locked in area as well. So I just called the company, and they let me in and gave me my bike back.
Afterwards, I called the police to let them know someone stole my bike and that the whole ordeal was caught on cameras (they have to open an official investigation before the footage can be used due to surveillance laws). As I tried to report the theft (or attempt thereof), I had the following fun conversation with a policeman:
- Me: Explains the circumstances of what happened.
- Policeman: (Interrupts) "Yeah, maybe you should keep that in mind for next time."
- Me: "Uhm what?"
- Policeman: "Yeah, maybe you should be a little bit smarter with regards to where you put your bike."
- Me: "Uhm OK, I just told you I put it in the designated parking spot that, as pointed out, is monitored."
I get that they do not really care about bike theft as they account for 30% of reported thefts, but I mean come on. They obviously moved my bike (along with others, I assume) to a nearby area so they could collect them all in a van later that night and drive off unnoticed. The police could have sent one patrol there at the right time and have them caught red-handed with video footage of the entire ordeal. Incompetence and unwillingness to actually do their work is precisely why there are so many thefts to begin with. Had I said I was a shop owner and had a bike stolen, I am certain they would show up in no time.
TL;DR: Bike got stolen and the police sucks. Thankfully, the thieves sucked marginally less, so I got my bike back.
My first ebike was stolen, about a week after I'd put it together. I was looking forward to zipping around my city with it. What really sucked is that I had bought it before getting laid off, and was looking forward to zipping around the city for fun while I looked for a new job. Luckily, I did find something new after 6 months and could eventually buy a new one.
For me, it was a punk ass who would steal stuff and call me his friend. Although I don't really care (only in that indignant small child way), I did tell my partner just the other day that "I bet you his ass is in jail." Well he is, in fact, he's actually in prison for murder. So yeah, that was a thing.
When I was first on my own, I was living paycheck to paycheck and only ate ramen and oatmeal at home because I couldn't afford decent meals.
The first Christmas when I could finally afford to buy presents for friends at work, I went shopping and carefully picked a gift for each person. Nothing fancy as I was still on a tight budget, but things I thought each person would enjoy. Then I splurged and bought gift bags and decorative tissue paper.
I left them all in the back seat of my piece of shit car to bring to work the next day. I figured it would be safe in the garage in a gated apartment complex. Someone broke into my car and stole it all.
They left fingerprints on my window, so I thought the police could track them down like on TV, but the police couldn't care less. It really deflated me.
I'm tempted to make an alt for this but whatever let's go. Years ago when I was 14 or 15 I had an older online boyfriend buy me a vibrator. Never really got to use it as I was too inexperienced.
I had stashed it under my bed in a bag for a portable DVD player. Anyway I come home from school one day and the manual for the DVD player in sitting on my bed. I check, the bag is gone.
Nothing else of value is gone but 2 aa batteries from my Xbox controller and only one of two from the family remote. The vibrator used 3 batteries. So some freak stole my vibrator with plans of using it.
Yes, every workday the owner of company i work in steal from me.
Yeah my new bicycle was stolen. Right where everyone could see it, and there were no other bikes. 250 euro lock.
I heard they use a spray to freeze the lock and then just break it.
Couldn't have been happier because it was a piece of shit and my insurance got me a new one that I still have over a decade later! Karma is a bitch.
Living with a friend, in the first place after moving out of our parents places. He smoked weed but that didn't bother me. However, one night he invited in the local weed dealer and I was really concerned but he assured me it was ok.
We both worked at the same company, so came home at the same time a day or so later to find the front door was open. They smashed the small decorative window which allowed them to reach in and unlock and open the door.
I can't remember what they stole from my friend but I lost my GameCube, controllers and all the games. Also, my first portable minidisc player and a pair of cheap earphones I used with them which I absolutely loved. The wire was like string and rarely tangled.
I had a few imported US games and I thought they might give me the edge. I rang all the local game shops to see if anyone had tried to bulk sell the lot but I was unlucky.
Growing up our house would get robbed often. I'd say yearly. Since I was interested in electronics they would always steal my stuff. I'd get a computer and it would get stolen. I'd get a playstation and it would get stolen. I'd get an air rifle and it would get stolen. I used to wish that they would take my sisters dollhouse or books just to even the score.
The worst part was they would trash my room every time. They would break open my cupboards and draws throw my clothes on the floor. One time they stole my playstation and gba and smashed my TV. I didn't even live in a bad area. I lived in the poor part of a nice area. My theory was that people would come from poorer suburbs and since we didn't have a massive wall, gate and security system we got targeted.
Yep. Fucking hate thieves
Pushbike stolen ... Many times. Once was kinda my fault for leaving it out, but every other time it was some cunt working hard to get a push bike. Every time I only found out just when I was going to the bike to go some where. One time, the bike was in a secure garage with two gates and the fucker secretly tail gated a car on foot to get in and then waited for another car to leave to tailgate them.
Motorbike stolen ... it was a cheap and nasty one but still
Apartment broken into ... 18th birthday present fancy watch stolen along gaming console
Yes, someone stole a game console from my room in university. Then I caught them selling it on craigslist, contacted them, got their name and got them arrested and my console back.
Lucky for me that I had reported it to the police since I was considering using insurance to cover it. The officer that took the info recognised the persons name because he had pulled the guy over that week and thought it would be fun to catch him with stolen goods as well.
When I started University, I used part of my small savings to buy a very nice bicycle so I could get around between uni districts.
When I moved into a shared student apartment, there was a locked bicycle room in the basement. Only resident keys would fit that lock. Nonetheless I still locked my bike separately.
The one day I forgot to do that, my bike was no longer there the next day. It pissed me off immensely because I couldn't immediately afford a new one, and the theft really made me uncomfortable. Mostly the fact that it must have involved someone who lived in the same block.
I was a court advocate for victims of domestic violence, volunteering at the same facility that had helped me escape an extreme situation. Having noticed that there was no federal, state, local, or private list of resources for people in crisis, I approached the director to request permission to compile a comprehensive guide and make it publicly available. Although I would’ve done it for free, the director saw the need and suggested this should be a highly-paid position; she announced the job opening to everyone at the next meeting.
A woman I’d never seen before expressed interest at the meeting, so I introduced myself and offered to collaborate to make the publication a success. We were scheduled to make our presentation to the board in a month. I gathered my half of the research and negotiated with businesses to donate materials and operating expenses, so that this program would be self-sustaining. I contacted the other woman every couple days to update her on what I’d accomplished, and to gather her data. She never had anything except excuses, so I gathered her share of the data, too.
On the day of the meeting, I’d done 100% of the work, which I’d happily shared with her, and I had put together the entire presentation. I didn’t mind, because this was a valuable community service. I arrived early for the meeting and sat outside the closed boardroom, waiting for my “partner”, but she never showed up.
At precisely the agreed-upon time for our meeting to start, the boardroom door opened and my partner emerged, grinning as everyone congratulated her. Yeah. I still didn’t get it.
I was ushered in and was asked to make my presentation. I was quickly interrupted because the board wanted to see MY efforts, not the work of the other woman. They accused me of stealing her work and told me to leave.
The other woman received a hefty salary for almost a year, but she never even bothered to use my research and connections to make even one flyer. Eventually she was fired and the failed community service idea became anathema to the facility.
That fucker changed the meeting time, stole my work and all the credit for it, scammed herself into the position, took the salary from the outreach budget, and destroyed the comprehensive resource list that would have helped tens of thousands of people in crisis.
Recent story but not me. A friend of mine just had his car stolen two days ago. He was going to bed around midnight and heard something outside, so he looked out the window just in time to see his vehicle rounding the corner on the street.
He phoned the RCMP who managed to catch the guy a few miles down the road. The thief had ripped the Sirius radio out of the vehicle but otherwise there didn't seem to be any damage. My friend and his mom had picked up the vehicle the next morning and was driving home when they heard a loud "pop" and the vehicle caught fire, burning to the ground. (My guess is when the guy ripped out the radio some wires got damaged and shorted out.)
So now he's scrambling to find a new set of wheels that he can't really afford to do because he needs it to get back and forth from work which is 16 miles one way. He will eventually get some insurance money for the vehicle, but who knows how much, and that probably won't be for a little while. In the meantime he's kind of up the creek without a paddle.
A friend in college gave me his Gameboy Advance SP and some games, and I'd collected more games over the years. I lent everything to a coworker and then I was home sick when said coworker moved away and took it all.
Could've left it at work, could've left it with a mutual friend. They were coming back for a visit so I asked if they could bring it and they accused me of not caring about them, only the gameboy, so they did not give it back then either.
It was a huge bummer because I was on THE LAST LEVEL of Pokemon Sapphire and now it's too expensive for me to get another copy. I'd also told the guy who gave it to me originally that he could reclaim the GBA and his games if he ever felt inclined but thankfully that has not happened since I wouldn't be able to return them now.
I've had other belongings stolen from me in the past but it was the accusation that trying to reclaim my property meant I did not care about the person who stole from me that really grinds my gears even now. I'd spent a lot of time trying to help them through some difficult life stuff long before I ever lent them the console.
A coworker I didn’t particularly like, but we were able to work together fine, was leaving the job. On his last day…I came in to start my shift, he was ending his…we were the only two on staff (evening/nights job). I kept a box of ice cream sandwiches with my name on it in the work fridge for a mid-shift snack. Found out later in my shift that he ate the last one…put the wrapper in the box and left the box in the freezer. Not sure if it was personal or he was just a POS…but I was LIVID.
Definitely more of a “mildly infuriating” one…but it sticks with me.
I've had my bike(s) stolen a few times.
It really sucks since usually I'm expecting to be able to bike somewhere (much faster than driving or public transport in my city) and can't so I end up being late to whatever I was going to. Not to mention the whole process of buying a new bike, a new lock, new lights, etc.
I'm pretty fortunate in that it doesn't ruin me financially to buy a new $400 Craigslist bike plus $100 in accessories but I would rather not do it every ~2 yrs or so
I've heard some people say that they feel violated because someone took their personal stuff, but I guess I just see it as the cost of locking your bike up in public in the city.
I stole some beers at a party once. A friend and I weren't feeling the vibe, took a few bottles and went somewhere else. I feel bad about it, he was a good dude and didn't deserve that.
I got trashed at my 23rd birthday party a friend threw at her house. It was mostly people she knew, but as I was passed out someone stole my wallet.
My brother stole quite a bit from me during the height of his addiction. He's been clean for several years now though. I'm glad I've got him back.
About 15 years ago I went on a trip from San Diego to NY. We were staying in a shitty Days Inn in some some town. We left our luggage in the rooms, and went out for the day, and I had left my iPod nano in there. When we came back that evening, my iPod was gone and my package of brand new boxers was missing a pair also. I assumed they hid the iPod in the rolled up boxers. We went down to complain to the front desk but they didn't give a shit. Lessons were learned that day. I was so excited to listen to Biggie "Going Back to Cali" on my way back to Cali and that's what was REALLY stolen from me :(
When I was in college almost 20 years ago, my first car was stolen by a pro chop shop.
My first car was a magical feeling of freedom. I was able to go anywhere and have friends with me, it was like a home away from home. One day I parked it and a few hours later I went to leave and the car was gone. I filled a police report and insurance.
About 3 days later the police found the car on the street with no engine, no wheels, just dumped there.
I went to see the car at the impound lot and wow everything was missing or destroyed. The entire car was covered in oil to hide fingerprints. I was destroyed.
There have also been times where people steal from my house, people I thought were friends. But the car really damaged me. I’m not the same person I was before the car was stolen.
My surplus labor value at my first job, my second job, a few jobs in between and my current job.
When I was in middle school, I had these really cool (imo) Nike's that were all white except for the stitching, sole, and the trim on the tongue and the inside were a bright, almost neon green. I saw them in the store at the NEX when we were visiting my brother when he graduated boot camp, and I begged my grandpa to get them for me, and he took a or of convincing and he finally broke down and got them for me. I was so happy about those things, I wore them all the time. One Friday night, when I was at some youth thing at a local roller rink that they put on every Friday night, some bastard kid stole them! I was so upset about it, I had to use the phone at the place to call my mom and tell her what happened. I had to sit around in my socks like a jackass until my mom came to get me. I was super bummed about it for a long time; tbh I still kinda am.
Then later, also in middle school, during a school event at night during the winter, my mom's car got broken into and her purse was stolen from inside. That was very upsetting for both of us.
In maybe third grade I brought my collection of x-men trading cards as part of a sort of show and tell activity. It was in a sizable three-ring binder with those 3x3 slot cars sheets. I had a number of highly valued "foil/hologram" cards. The binder was gone when I got back from lunch. I was devastated and learned to never leave anything of value not locked up if I'm not watching it.
At work we have a kitchen/break room. I've had shit stolen from there a lot. Utensils, cups, bowls. Wash it after lunch, put it in the drying rack, come back in an hour to get it and it's gone. Once my department had a leftover pizza from an event donated to us. I brought in a baking sheet to reheat it in the oven for a lunch morale boost for the team because we had to work that weekend. The sheet, left in a drawer and not visible to any casual observers, was gone by Monday. That was actually the first item I'd had stolen there but I thought I was just s fluke.
I've literally bought upgrades and utensil sets for the kitchen (maybe people "stealing" my utensils just forgot to bring a fork, borrowed mine, and brought it home by accident?). Stuff like drying towels, soap dispensers + large refill bottles, a microwave food cover... all stolen. I'd keep getting frustrated with, for example, people leaving the sponge wet in the sink. I'd think "its been a year since I last donated something, maybe it'll be different this time..." and I'd buy an OXO sponge holder or something and within a week it would be gone. Everyone in my office, including secretaries and cleaning staff, gets paid at least a living wage with great health benefits. Some make well over 100k. I just imagine someone making twice my salary seeing a nice soap dispenser and taking it home... lost a good bit of faith in humanity and affected me way more than it should have.
I found a solution though. Whoever was stealing this shit couldn't deal with the shame of being reminded that they stole it. I started labeling the donated items using my organization's acronym with a permanent marker in big visible letters. None of that's been stolen. I was going to engrave my utensils/dishes but decided instead to look like an asshole and bring my own towel when washing my dishes, drying them immediately, and taking them back to my desk immediately.
Besides the obvious like surplus labour value being stolen by my boss I've been stolen from a couple of times. I had my car broken into once (I accidentally left it unlocked since I had a family emergency to get to), they stole my jacket and some change out of the cup holder. I didn't really care since I had more tragic matters to deal with at the time and if they needed to steal my jacket they needed it more than me. I was/am lucky enough to have a spare so I really didn't think much about it. They did leave a half carton of coffee creamer behind though, I was a little confused about that
I lived in an apartment complex in my early 20s. Left the car unlocked one night and someone rummaged through it. The only thing they took was my prescription sunglasses. It aggrivates me to think that the moment they tried it they realized it was a prescription and threw em out. $600 just gone to steal something absolutely useless to anyone but me.
Like bruh.
In uncivilized countries like the USA I've had many things stolen from my porch, from my car, even an entire car.
I now choose to spend most of my time where I can leave my valuables unwatched in public and my house door unlocked. Living in fear and around crime, adds so much stress, anxiety, and general angst to your everyday life. Life is too short to live in a terrible place
Yes. They stole everything of value in my home, which sadly was not much, and they killed the family pets while doing it. No clue who did it, cops tend not to care much when this sort of thing happens to poor people, and they never tracked down who the culprits were. Definitely did affect me and yes I care.
People broke into our house while we were upstairs with our 1 week old baby, at 1am. They took our keys and our car. We have 4 kids. No way to get them to school or me to work.
Turned out they were aged between 15 and 17 and got a slap on the wrist. We got an insurance payout and a different car.
Ridiculous.
I took my bike out for a trail ride, decided to stop at home for a quick refill of water before going out again. I was in my house for under 3 minutes and my bike was stolen from my enclosed front porch.
Reported it with serial number to the police and a stolen bike website but never heard anything back.
I was in college and had to start leaving for classes 20 minutes earlier. I was pretty angry at the time. Now l'll never leave a bike out of my sight unless it's locked indoors or with two U-locks.
I was a kid once and heard a group of kids following me. I was trick or treating.
Heard them coming up behind me and was expecting them to attack me. Instead one of them just grabbed by bag of candy and ran off.
I started to go after them but my friends stopped me and said with all the solemnity a 7 year old could muster, “let it go”.
They shared their candy with me.
Probably not what you were looking for but this week i had cheese curds stolen at work out of the work fridge. Could only have been 1 of 23 people. Won't ever find out who. I can be reasonably sure it wasn't half of them, can't accuse anyone since im a manager and the company response is basically don't use the fridge if you don't want to have things stolen
We were on holiday at a camp ground when I was child. I had my Nintendo DS with me and I think during this vacation I even bought a carrying case and some games for it with my own money. During the day we would ride bycicles to other places so I left it in the tent buried under some stuff. One day when we came back i could not find it. At first I thought it could be stolen or my dad tried to hide it from me, because I played with it quite a lot which he wasn'ta fan of. So I tried to look through his stuff without him noticing to find it. But i didn't find it and since i am quite reserved i didnt want to bring it up that it was missing.
In the end I think someone at that camp ground must have seen me use it and then waited for us to leave to steal it, since nothing else was stolen.
After that every time someone asked me why I wasn't playing as much as before I told them that I didn't feel like it. And I'm not sure whether they figured it out to this day.
I don't think I have, but I'm always mildly irked by broke people stealing from other broke people instead of from people that can afford to replace the stolen whatever.
I used to steal food from the local big chain supermarket.
my father gave me a lesson once when my bike was stolen when i was a child. he told me that they did it because they felt they had to; not because they wanted to target me and that remaining angry about it was unproductive because they will never know nor care.
i try to apply that same lesson every time someone wrongs me.
I had a car broken into, but there wasn’t anything worth taking, so they slashed a tire on their way out. Luckily they left enough clear fingerprints that they were actually ID’d and had to pay for my slashed tire. They had broken into several cars in the area and I guess their fingerprints on my window was their undoing.
Frankly it was more insulting that they didn’t think any of my stuff was worth taking. :/
Bikes. It's always bikes
Yeah, had a drug dealer burgle our apartment (just an opportunistic thing, spare keys had been left outside by a friend who was moving). Fortunately no-one was in, but it sucked to have to deal with all the damage and security.
We eventually tracked them down when they sold some stuff though and they were actually arrested and we got a few things back.
It was awesome the police actually raided them. Unfortunately the new government released them as prisoners with "non-violent" offences.
One winter evening I got a notification about possible fraudulent charges on my credit card. I had not in fact gone to Redbox twice that day, so I told them to replace the card. I got home and really had to pee so I beelined it to the bathroom. It occurred to me that it was really cold inside for some reason, and when I got out of the bathroom I noticed the living room window was open. Then I looked around and noticed that on my way to the bathroom I had walked past a bunch of drawers and cabinets that were also open.
Luckily not much of consequence got stolen. Whoever it was probably didn't have a car because everything that was taken was small. We had a nice TV and my ex had a nice computer that were both still there. On my end, I was missing that credit card (I had accidentally left it on my desk after making an online purchase) and my wedding and engagement rings. I was in the middle of a divorce and wasn't going to keep them anyway, so hopefully someone else got some enjoyment out of them.
I've been robbed twice. The first time was a classic trick. One day after school, I was trading Pokémon cards as usual. I had just received a new pack and went to the kid who checked for fake cards. He told me that one card, the Kyogre EX, was fake. I was suspicious because I had mentioned that Kyogre was one of my favorites. He explained that the redness on the back and the paper thickness were off. I trusted him and showed him my entire collection, keeping the Kyogre. After chatting for a bit, I took my book and went home.
The next day, I did the same thing, but when I got home, my entire collection was gone. My mom called some teachers, and it was a big deal because losing something as a kid feels devastating. A few weeks later, the kid approached me and said he found something in the boys' locker. I checked, and it was my collection, but my beloved Kyogre and Pikachu were missing. I asked him directly why he took those two cards, and he denied it. He offered to trade me for "similar" cards. I agreed, lost five cards, but got my two favorites back.
The second time I was robbed was about two years ago. A seemingly legitimate Amazon delivery driver rang my doorbell, handed me my package, and started making small talk about how beautiful my lawn was and how he wanted someone to make his lawn look like mine. At that moment, I had no idea what was happening. I later suspected that my bike and skis were taken and stuffed into the delivery van. To clarify, it wasn't an Amazon Prime delivery, but it looked similar because of the blue color.
After the small talk, he said goodbye, and I checked my package. To my surprise, it was an old book, like the free ones libraries give away. I felt something was off, but since I’m not a morning person, I went to work without thinking much about it. When I got home and went through my usual routine, I felt like I had forgotten something. I remembered the Amazon guy and the package, and then I realized that Amazon doesn’t ship to my country. I know that sounds like an important detail to forget, but I can be pretty forgetful.
Confused, I checked my lawn and then turned my home upside down, quickly noticing my bike and skis were missing. The bike wasn’t a huge loss since I didn’t ride much, but it still hurt because bikes aren’t cheap. The skis were particularly upsetting because they were a gift from someone very important to me. Luckily, my insurance covered everything, but the sentimental value can never be replaced. The police were informed, and some of my neighbors were also missing items.
Years ago my house was broken into and many things were taken, but not all the things you'd expect. They did take my PS3, laptop, and desktop but left the TV and all other electronics. Took only the Harry Potter movies from my bookcase of movies. Took a cheap anime sword. Among other odd things.
Honestly, it was mostly just inconvenient. Insurance gave me more than it was worth, even after I told them so.
However, it kinda looked like they knew what they were going for. Nothing was ransacked or anything. It wasn't any of my current, at the time, friends but it may have been someone familiar with my place.
Yes. The last six months of my life (time, stress, and thousands of dollars) taking in two wildly ungrateful and disrespectful people after they were evicted from their apartment. Well they’re now being removed from yet another place (my house) at the end of the month, willingly, or by escort from the sheriff.
Never again.
The was in the 90s when I was growing up. Some asshole straight up came into my parent’s house and took these expensive ass Guess shorts while I was napping. Also had my wallet and ID in there. In a few days, the ID showed back up in my mailbox. I have a feeling it was a scumbag dude I grew up with but I’ll never truly know for sure.
Got one of those rare holo hieroglyph Mew pokemon cards stolen when i was a kid, i still think about it.
Yes, by pirates. They looted me art thinking they could get away with disregarding even any minimal courtesy for that, but I showed I can go full Julius Caesar on them, and with the power of a single prayer to mod, almost like magic, their very substance vanished in a puff of smoke. Don't mess with creative minds.