Senseless

I have a friend who moved temporarily out of her house to help an elderly woman that had been a friend of her family.  Temporarily turned into several years.  At first it was off and on and she would go back to her house.  Slowly it turned more permanent.  Meanwhile, she checked in on her own house, picked up mail, etc.  Her own health is pretty marginal at times so in the recent year the visits to her own house became fewer and further between. 

At the end of this summer she was contacted by a neighbor to say that her house had been broken into.  It turns out that it took several weeks for the neighbor to get in touch with her.  It also turns out that it was more than a break-in. 

Apparently people had been squatting in her house.  While there they opened files and boxes and committed identity theft with the documents they found.  They cooked on the stove and left a mess, they ground out their cigarette butts anywhere they wanted.  They blacked out the windows with cardboard, the bed mattresses, towels--anything to keep their activities invisible.  They emptied the attic of all its boxes of stored goods.  Hard to know how long they were there, but over what must have been at least a few weeks they moved out the items that they could steal.  The desk, much of the furniture, the shower head and toilet innards, money and other items that could be sold.  They must also have used the house as a place to store items they stole from elsewhere.  The backyard had old exercise equipment and lawnmowers, for example. 

When they finally had taken all they wanted and left the house, they left it with about 3 foot deep of emptied boxes and clothes from the closets and items from filing cabinets, cupboards and closets.

I was there last weekend for about 3 hours and then again last night for about 3 hours helping to make sense of the overwhelming destruction.  The project last night was to finish clearing the way for someone to come in to fix the broken window.  Think about it.... You can't have someone come in to fix things because there is NO open floor space.  Well, now there is a room's worth of open floor space. 

Next we will work on an area that will allow the broken refrigerator and stove to be taken out.  After that a portion of the garage will be cleared out so that the items that are found and boxed will have a place to be stored.

Overwhelming.  Disturbing.  Devastating.  And it didn't even happen to me.  I can't imagine what this must feel like to my friend.