Yesterday, Friday, July 13th, was a day that will be long remembered in our house.  It started for me at about 5:00 a.m. when we were awoken by a phone call from my son who lives in Columbus, Georgia.  He is stationed at Ft. Benning and was headed out to work when he saw that his Tahoe had been broken into and his radio/CD player stolen, along with everything else in the vehicle that could be taken out.  The thieves had broken out the rear window of the SUV to gain access.  Sorry, son, a rough dose of reality.  What made it more frustrating was that he lives in an apartment complex with a security gate - and the gate had been left open all night because it was broken.

After dozing back off to catch those last few minutes of sleep before getting up for work, the phone rang again.  6:30-ish our daughter called to say - you guessed it, HER car had been broken into during the night.  What??  She lives in the Tanglewood area south of Orange Park.  She too was getting ready to head out to work and noticed her car door was ajar, and many of the contents in her car were gone also.  Unfortunately, she leaves her wallet in the console and the wallet with all of its debit and credit cards were stolen.  By the time the police arrived, 6:45 or so, the thieves had used her debit card twice to buy gas, get $200 from an ATM machine (she had her PIN written on a piece of paper in her wallet - not smart), and buy $270 worth of stuff from Wal-Mart.

So this was Friday the 13th for us.  But, it was not a good day to be a thief in Clay County either.

The thieves, using the debit card at locations monitored by security cameras, were quickly identified and were arrested before 5:00 p.m. on the same day they broke into her car.  Their first purchase with her card was just after midnight at a local Shell.  They were in custody less than 18 hours later.  We haven't heard all the details yet, but it appears there were 6 people arrested related to this crime.  Fortunately, we contacted the police immediately, so all of the fraud with the card is covered by the bank.  If a victim delays calling the police (why would you?), the fraud has a $250 cap for coverage.

In the perspective of our blog-site conversation, there has been some harsh criticism of the Clay County Sheriff's Department.  I have always thought Sheriff Beesler, and his staff, were doing a good job trying to ride herd over crime in our little corner of the world.  Well, my family's personal experience as crime victims did nothing but reinforce my opinion.  Yes, the thieves were pretty studpid using the card where they had to know cameras were in place, and yes, my daughter should have been more reponsible with securing her wallet and its contents.  But, none of that should detract from the prompt, professional response to this crime and its outcome.

Thank you Clay County Sheriff's Department.  I only hope the police in Columbus have similar good fortune.  My guess is probably not.