There is a special place in Purgatory

[ShadowHM]

And I hereby volunteer to take charge of it. :angry:

We arrived home from the cottage tonight to discover that our house had been broken into at some point over the weekend.

After dumping out all manner of boxes, drawers, cupboards, etc. it appears that they failed to find anything of value. Our music equipment, television, DVD player and so forth were apparently insufficiently easy to transport and insufficiently valuable to take. The only thing missing that we can see is a number of coins - proof silver dollars of each of the past 20 years. We don't keep anything of value in the house. GAWD - we don't own anything of value besides the damn house itself.

However, having determined that they had clearly squandered their time in our home, they took vengeance upon us for wasting their time.

Our house is full of stained glass. It has been my husband's hobby for about 20 years. And the bastards decided to break a lot of it.

Now, stained glass items have minimal value in the sense that the materials are not costly. (One of the reasons why it makes such a good hobby.) What makes stained glass valuable is the man-hours it takes to put them together. Two of the items broken were the result of literally hundreds of hours of labour.

One was a Tiffany design that had 2600 individually cut, wrapped and soldered pieces in it. One was a sampler that my husband had made to show all the kinds of glass he had ever worked with, as a guide to selecting glass for other projects. It had at least 1200 individual pieces of glass in it.

And, to insult to injury, they dumped a lot of the glass on my BED ! My water-bed!

I have no recourse against these anonymous bastards. I know that fulminating here is not going to accomplish anything. But I did need to get this off my chest to be able to get to sleep tonight.

[DeeBye]

That sucks. I hope you can work something out with your insurance company.

[LochnarITB]

The only thing missing that we can see is a number of coins - proof silver dollars of each of the past 20 years.

Considering how stupid those type of people are, I would bet that those coins went to buy beer and cigarettes at the local convenience store.

One was a Tiffany design that had 2600 individually cut, wrapped and soldered pieces in it. One was a sampler that my husband had made to show all the kinds of glass he had ever worked with, as a guide to selecting glass for other projects. It had at least 1200 individual pieces of glass in it.

There is one small, albeit very small, bright side. Anyone that does projects like that always look at them when finished and think, "if only I would have..." , but don't go back and do them "better". Now he can go back and make the improvements.

I have no recourse against these anonymous bastards.

I am sorry for the grief these low lifes have brought to you. I can certainly understand the violation and the helplessness you feel in not being able to place blame on someone real.

I know that fulminating here is not going to accomplish anything. But I did need to get this off my chest to be able to get to sleep tonight.

Isn't there a potion to take care of that? I seem to remember selling bunches of them. Actually, I think this is a great place to blow off a bit. The core people here form a fairly tight little group and they are certainly willing to listen and commiserate. If it did you good to post it, then it was worth the time to read it. All I can offer is that this too shall pass. Luckily, nobody was home. It is hard to say what might have happened if they had broken in and one of you was sleeping there. Things can be replaced or rebuilt or forgotten. Good luck with any further hassle that comes from the incident.

[--Pete]

Hi,

I can offer nothing but my condolences. The lack of empathy shown by vandals (the ones who did this to you and all the others) indicates to me that although they appear human, that is only a surface coincidence. They are really members of some loathsome species whose extermination would be a boon to humanity. Creation is the hallmark of true humans. Those that commit senseless destruction at thus the opposite of human, our worse enemies and unworthy of the air they waste.

--Pete

[Griselda]

Shadow,

I'm sorry to hear about that! Your cottage is so clearly a place of comfort, and it's so unsettling when a safe haven like that is disturbed. :(

As far as the stained glass goes, while they can break the individual pieces, they can never take away the hours of experience and enjoyment that went into creating the pieces. I remind my student teachers constantly that "it's the process, not the product, that's important." Most of the hundreds of pages of artwork that kids produce won't last very long, but the skills they develop will last a lifetime. I think that can apply at post-preschool levels as well. Losing the pieces of stained glass is heartbreaking, but nobody can take the experience away. In the long run, that's probably the more valuable.

While I've never experienced that degree of vandalism, I have found that situations like that can bring neighbors together. Somebody went down our street spraypainting cars a few years ago. The police woke us up, and we found that the paint was a bit wet, and came off fairly easily (hooray for Oregon rain!). Those of us who were home (it was a holiday weekend) came out and cleaned our own cars. After we went inside, a few of us thought better of it and came back outside to clean the remaining cars. That experience helped to strengthen the sense of community that I feel in this neighborhood, and it's one of the reasons that I enjoy living here.

While the specific situations are different, I hope that you are able to find some tibidts of kindness in the aftermath that will add at least a bit of a silver lining to the experience.

[ShadowHM]

As far as the stained glass goes, while they can break the individual pieces, they can never take away the hours of experience and enjoyment that went into creating the pieces.

A good night's sleep has made me more phlegmatic about the issue. We will certainly muddle our way through dealing with this.

And now you all know what Mr. Shadow does of an evening while I slay monsters, eh? ;)

We lead very different 'work' lives. He spend his days in 'seeking cooperation from others' mode with the people who pass through his office. He has to be 'up and cheerful' with all of them in order to best aid their healing. Stained glass projects are beneficial to him because he can do them all by himself. He uses all the same small motor skills that he has developed so well but nobody has to cooperate with the endeavour to make them turn out well.

There are two elements to the making of truly fine examples of stained glass. There is the technical skill of cutting, wrapping and soldering. And there is the artistic skill of making the patterns and selecting the right glass for them.

The Tiffany pattern was a technical challenge of immense proportions, to make sure that each and every one of those small pieces were cut to perfection so as to fit exactly with all the others.

However, his best work (IMO) is still safely on display at the cottage, because that is where the pieces that include more of his own design live.

It may be a while before he musters the energy to tackle such an immense project again, but I am sure his spirit will not be crushed by this event. :)

[Tal]

I can only offer my condolences. I am so sorry this happened to you Shadow...words fail me.

[AtomicKitKat]

I'll see what I can do by way of karmic retribution. Tell the local cops to detain anyone found with glass cuts. *mutters darkly*

[Sailboat]

Considering the kind of sloppy, low-class crime this was, is there a chance the police will dust for fingerprints? It would be cathartic to get the yahoo(s) involved into a database so that when they are caught somewhere down the road, you at least know some justice occurred.

And condolences to you and yours.

Sailboat

[Artega]

Actually, I think there is a place in Hell reserved for them. Third Circle, I believe, though it has been some time since I was last told to go study The Inferno.

Amusing how we automatically label these vandals as low-lives and "sub-human creatures" and so on because they violated the sanctity of someone's home. Not saying that they aren't low-life scumbuckets (were it that I could say what I really think of them on a public forum like this), but just making an observation on how we tend to react about such things.

I'll admit that I've done some vandalism in the past (including expensive stuff such as slashing tires, breaking windows, and the like), though all of it was based on wrath and not on some kind of perverse pleasure reaped via mindless destruction.

I realize that I'm coming into this thread rather late, but you have my condolences just the same.

EDIT: Formatting errors.

[Tal]

They showed no respect for Shadow's family and their house by breaking into it and destroying their property. They've gone against society's established rules and conduct by doing so and are low life scumbuckets in my opinion. There is absolutely no reason that they could give me that would change my opinion on that score.

[Nystul]

Amusing how we automatically label these vandals as low-lives and "sub-human creatures" and so on because they violated the sanctity of someone's home.

Violating the sanctity of someone's home is tresspassing. That's generally not held in very high regard, but it can be excused if the person has a remotely valid reason for doing it. Taking something with you after you tresspass is stealing, which is generally considered downright bad, but at least we can all identify with the usual motivation of greed. Smashing everything to pieces before you leave... that's kind of like hitting a stranger over the head with a baseball bat for no particular reason. It's hard to think of anything good to say about it. The only good thing I can think of is "At least he didn't hit you over the head with a baseball bat."

We do tend to judge people based on the things they do, but to me that is more a necessary evil than a source of humor.

[Artega]

I have an odd sense of humor.

I'm not finding amusement in Shadow's situation, but, rather, am finding amusement in the way we tend to automatically label people as sub-human when they cross us. Like I said, I have an odd sense of humor.

I am also agreeing that I believe that the little bastards are imbeciles; I clearly stated that in my post.

[Archon_Wing]

Purgatory? The deepest depths of hell is more like it.

[Minionman]

Na, still purgatory, This was really mean and nasty but shadowHM still is alive, has a job, etc. Save hell for the reaslly bad guys.

[JustAGuy]

My condolences.

The worst part about this crime is that you don't know who the perpetrator is/are, and it's extremely difficult to catch them to impose justice. Add to it that you can't really do anything to them in return without becoming a criminal yourself; you break my stained glass, I break your fingers.

I'd surely like to break their fingers, though... Mindless vandals. Probably just some teenage punks looking for drug money. PUNKS!

[ShadowHM]

I'll admit that I've done some vandalism in the past (including expensive stuff such as slashing tires, breaking windows, and the like), though all of it was based on wrath and not on some kind of perverse pleasure reaped via mindless destruction.

I was going to let this slide, but it has been niggling at me, so I may as well go ahead and ask.

What exactly is the mitigating difference between vandalism based on wrath and general vandalism?

Did you do it in front of the person with whom you were angry? Did they know it to be retribution for a specific deed they did? Did they vandalize something of yours, so it met the 'eye for an eye' definition of justice?

I have never once felt sufficiently angry with someone and sufficiently cowardly about it to indulge in anonymous vandalism of their property. I still cannot fathom how it happens or what motivation there could be for it.

So, indulge me, please, and explain how it could be justifiable, as you imply.

[Minionman]

Vandalism based on wrath vs. fun I guess has the same argument as angry murder vs. planned murder. Either way it's wrong, but if the person is mad it makes more sense why they did it. Apparently, Artega got really pissed at someone, and thought of destoying property as a way to get back at them that wuld work better than starting a fight or something like that.

Of course, your house was ripped apart so I'm not going to go into any opinions beyond that, as it's still a sad thing.