And the hits just keep coming

/ CrazyKat1963
K-9 unit threatening to send in the German Shepherd if the intruder didn’t get down on his knees and put his hands behind his back. The officer yells: “he will bite you!” It worked.

And the hits just keep coming. I’m back here in my comfort zone, hiding a bit from the real world. Something scary happened yesterday and although it’s not sex addict related, it is most definitely addict related.

A meth addict broke into our home yesterday while Blue Eyes and I were off purchasing items for his new tea house. We had scheduled this fun activity for our Saturday as a distraction from the arbitration judgment. We found a beautiful brass Buddha, a lovely Japanese woodblock print, some mats and cushions, an 1800’s antique cast iron tea pot from Kyoto… and while we were finding treasures, a man entered our home while the Peacemaker was sleeping soundly in his bed.

Here’s the email I sent this evening to our lovely neighbors:

Hello Neighbors.

We wanted to send out an informational email regarding an incident that happened at our house yesterday afternoon. The purpose of the email is to hopefully allow everyone to have the same information, reduce fear, and publicly thank specific neighbors and the neighborhood as a whole. We have lived in our house for 23 years this week. A number of interesting things have happened here in those years, but nothing as disturbing as what happened yesterday. Regardless, we love this neighborhood and our neighbors. There were a lot of police and emergency vehicles and officers around our house yesterday and we are grateful to the Police for reacting promptly to this incident. They really did a great job in our opinion.

Here’s what we know: We left our house at about 11:30am Saturday morning to run some errands. At approximately 2:15pm I received a text and phone call from Alex (our neighbor directly to the south) saying she heard glass breaking, saw a broken pot and broken window and a man with no shirt standing in the family room. I let her know that our son (26 years old) was home and I would contact him immediately. I was initially unable to reach our son by phone and so we headed immediately for the house. Our son had been in the shower. He had been asleep in his room (basement level). He assumed we were home. He came upstairs to take a shower (top floor) and didn’t notice anything amiss. While he was in the shower, he heard talking and something breaking, but again, he assumed it was us. When we reached him and asked if someone was in the house he said he had heard the glass break. He then heard pottery crashing in the hall and got dressed quickly. He looked out from the bathroom and saw broken pottery and blood in the hall. He could hear the intruder talking to himself in the office next to the bathroom. The door was closed. He quickly exited from the front door (mid level of the house) while calling the police, retrieved our dogs from the back yard (where the intruder had put them) and headed across the street where Steve B took them inside safely.
The police arrived shortly after we called. They interviewed our son and neighbors and were pretty convinced the guy was still in the house. They called in a K-9 unit. The intruder was indeed still in the house. They threatened sending in the German Shepherd and the intruder gave himself up. He was nude and cut up and covered in blood.

It appears as if he entered the house through one of the unlocked kitchen doors on the back deck sometime after we left in the morning. Ray (neighbor to the north) noticed a shirtless man on the deck about noon, but of course had no idea he was an intruder. We think the intruder then sequestered himself in the upstairs family room with the door shut. It seems when he heard someone else in the house (probably at least 1.5 hours later) he panicked and dumped out a plant from its heavy pottery planter and threw the pot through the double paned picture window in the family room. At this point he was nude and we think he intended to jump through the broken window to escape until he saw how far down the patio was. He cut himself pretty badly on the jagged glass then bled all over the family room, destroyed a plate display in the hall, on his way to shutting himself off in the office. He then bled all over that room.

We’re not convinced he was homeless. He was potentially mentally ill and most likely high on meth. Later, the police officer confirmed the intruder had been arrested at least 10 times on meth related charges. The burglar is a 31 year old white male. He was taken away on a stretcher because he was badly cut and bleeding.

A hazmat crew was brought in late last night to remove glass and blood and board up the window. We’re pretty shaken up, but believe this to be a totally freak isolated incident. We don’t know how the man entered the neighborhood, or why. When we drove out of the neighborhood in the morning, we didn’t see anyone. Our yard is secure on the south side with locks on the gates. He had to have entered from the closed (but not locked) gate on the north side of the house.

The police officer told us that the best security situation these days are cameras that can be monitored from smartphones as there are so many false alarms on regular security systems that they don’t often respond without further confirmation from the homeowner. We had talked about installing motion sensor cameras around the house after a situation this summer when a homeless woman was charging electronics on the south side of our house. We hadn’t done it yet. We will now install the cameras.

Thank you everyone who saw, spoke up, called 911, took care of our son and the dogs, came by, emailed, texted, and brought over delicious brownies. We are all safe! What a great neighborhood! We will keep watch on this case and make sure the intruder is prosecuted. He clearly needs help and we can only do what we can and hope the system provides this man with the services he needs.
❤️

Today, we’re exhausted. The hazmat guys left at about 2:00am. They’ll be back tomorrow. We didn’t get much sleep. We thought about going to a hotel, but with all the pets, it seemed even more overwhelming. I’m wondering if our lives are ever going to get back to any kind of normal. I had nightmares about blood, glops of blood, everywhere. The intruder was treated at the hospital then taken to jail and booked. He needs serious help. Our system just doesn’t seem to provide much help to broken drug addicted people. The officer stood in our bedroom with me and Blue Eyes, which I thought was kind of funny, such an intimate room, but it was the closest room to the crime scene that wasn’t covered in blood. He seemed like a sweet kid. I guess anyone under 40 is a kid to me now. He said he’s seen a lot of addicts. It starts with unresolved childhood wounds… trying to medicate pain, but without decent treatment the wounds don’t heal and the drugs escalate. Blue Eyes was silent. I just said, “yeah, I think you are right.”

I need to gather myself. Go to work tomorrow, then shop for groceries for the week ahead. Thanksgiving++ for 10 at the beach house. I really do love cooking a Thanksgiving feast, but I’m so tired. My Mom told me to cancel. I’m not gonna. It’ll be a distraction. 😔

30 thoughts on “And the hits just keep coming”

  1. Pingback: That damn desk | try not to cry on my rainbow

  2. The guy has very little chance to get sober from meth, especially with that record. The excellent and true-story movie “Beautiful Boy” includes a lot of science about meth addiction and it is ugly.

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    • I haven’t seen the movie. I might wait a bit to watch it. I’m still shaken. We have a friend who recovered from meth addiction, but it took 3x at an expensive rehab. It also took leaving her husband and children behind to start a new life. She’s been sober for about 12 years now. She’s reconciled with her children. She’s remarried and lives and works near her parents, who never abandoned her. The life she created for herself, the one she thought she wanted, was too much. She did what she had to do for herself and she survived. I really do hope the guy gets help, but I don’t think he’ll get help from the “system.” xo

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  3. Goodness. You’ve had too many crazy things happen at once. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for you to watch your beautiful home get destroyed by hazmat folks. Thankfully nobody was injured. I thought that comment by the officer was interesting because it tells me your local police have been at least introduced to trauma informed policing. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. We are going out to eat this year for the first time. Looking forward to it too.

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    • The police were great. As our son mentioned to us yesterday, they were very kind and understanding of the intruder as well. They weren’t aggressive with him. He was pretty vulnerable, naked and bleeding all over, but it was nice to see, as he was pretty out of it. Also, the lead officer stayed with us for quite a while making sure we were okay. I think they have been trained, yes, for trauma.

      Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family as well. Prior to dday, we had been hosting Thanksgiving at our Portland house. We did one restaurant Thanksgiving at Meriwether’s here in Portland in 2014. It was nice, the restaurant was decorated beautifully and the meals were delicious. We have been celebrating Thanksgiving at the beach house since 2016. It’s a nice tradition that everyone enjoys. I prep a lot the two days before, so we’re really just re-heating the sides and cooking the turkey. I get lots of help from my son… clean-up courtesy of Blue Eyes, and my step father even though we ask him to just relax, he doesn’t know how. 🙂 xo

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    • I’m hoping it works, Jangled. I need a distraction. I’ll probably be moving on muscle memory, but at least I’ll be moving. Strange how now my new office seems like my safe space with everything that has been going on. ❤

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  7. Kat, that’s terrifying. I’m glad the intruder didn’t harm your dogs and that your son got out as well. It could have been much different. The material losses are real and significant, but I shudder at how this could have played out. ❤️

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    • I absolutely agree! It could have been so much worse. Our son was so fearless and agile (adrenaline driven no doubt) as he got from the upstairs bathroom (intruder sequestered in his room next door to the bathroom), barefoot, downstairs through broken glass, pottery and drops-to-pools of blood, safely without a cut or drop of blood on him, and he remembered to get the dogs to safety with him. As I was talking with the hazmat guy this morning about my $15,000 office rug, they asked if I really wanted it back. The pool of blood was pretty big and deep. This kid, probably the age of my son, said to me that I could have this form of “PTSD” and that I might not realize it and the rug could trigger it over and over. Then he told me there was no way he believed I was in my 50’s, LOL. But to a degree, he may be right. Walking to lunch, every dark spot around me looked like blood. I just need to get through this week. xo

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      • Oh my. Your son is smart and obviously a quick-thinker in a crisis situation. Good person to have around!

        The blood – pools of blood – police officers — oh, boy, that brings back memories, and not good ones, but I am okay.

        An officer who was so good to me at our horrific incident drove my husband’s BMW home. The driver’s seat was soaked in my husband’s blood, though a pastor’s wife had a blanket to cover me (I was in my PJs at the scene) and I used it the blanket on the seat for the officer. The seat was covered in pieces of tempered glass, too. Crazy shit, eh? I had EMDR for that car and the car wasn’t an issue. I could actually drive it (March 2016- Nov. 2019). We kept it, but it’s getting sold very soon.

        Rug or no rug, you’ll be able to decide what is best for you. All I can say is – yes – this is trauma and it SUCKS to have your safe home invaded. That happened to me 2 times in college (long stories) but very scary!!!

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        • We’re so happy our son made sensible, practical decisions. He absolutely did not want to confront someone that had destroyed part of our home in such a manner even though he is a big and incredibly strong person. It was obvious there was something drastically wrong with the situation. I’m happy he had the wherewithal to get the dogs so we didn’t have to worry about them during the time it took to remove the man from the house. The police were great. Very sensible as well. No weapons drawn. They opted for the threat of the canine. Once they saw he was nude and willing to surrender, they quickly removed the dog. There was a lot of blood though. It will he a while before I am free from the trauma of that. I’m so happy you have been able to heal. I can only imagine the amount of self care and therapy it has taken to get to this point. I remember when I harmed myself, the blood was a relief. I wanted to open it back up numerous times. So not healthy, but that’s where I was. This is different. I have never been queasy or traumatized by blood, until now. I’ll figure it out. xoxo

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          • You will figure it out, and you will heal. People are affected in different ways. Some soldiers see the same “scene” and one gets PTSD, and the other doesn’t (but it’s not that simple, I know). It’s really scary when a dangerous person enters our home / safe place / personal space. The good thing in all of this is a positive outcome – everyone was safe, your son handled it so well, your dogs were kept safe, the police were helpful, the man lived… etc. I think in my situation, I was able to process it better because there was a positive outcome – my husband was alive (although it took a few years, really, to “get there” and feel okay about it).

            I’m truly sorry, Kat, and I can empathize. You’ve had SO MUCH over a few years. I get that. I do know how resilient you are, so I know you’ll get through this, too.

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  8. Wow, Kat. This is so scary. I’m so glad you all are okay. Good thinking and reacting on your son’s part. I found the officer’s comments about the regular security system interesting. We had a security system installed after D-day due to fears of former acting out partners, and it has been a total pain. We had so many false alarms with it and had to pay fines for police responding unnecessarily that we turned it off. Many of my neighbors have installed the security cameras and some of the things they have seen are amazing. I definitely think that is the way to go.

    Please take care of yourself.Thinking of you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and let others help.

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    • Yeah, we have the cameras at the beach house and were planning on putting them in the city, but, you know, work, travel, life. We’ll get them up this week, along with everything else. The hazmat guys are done. That’s a relief. xo

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  9. In 2014 I, like you, was very tired. Mine was work related, life related I had burnt myself out and one dau my brain just opted out and I couldn’t stop sleeping. Try and take some naps, take it from me, before you have no choice. Sending a hug, ai am glad nobody was hurt.

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    • Damage wasn’t minimal… the hazmat crew removed everything with blood on it that could be removed including the bloodied glass, both inside and outside the house, and the moulding around the window, plus the custom window coverings. The window itself is 6’ x 5’ and will need replacing. The entire wall to wall was removed, part of the leather sofa, the upholstered ottoman, two other very expensive carpets. The plates he smashed were one of a kind hand-painted brought back from Turkey. I used my entire bonus one year for the carpet in my home office, $15k plus a quilt my mother made for our 20th wedding anniversary. He bled so much I’m not sure how they were able to bring him out standing. But those are all material possessions. Our son and pets were unharmed. That’s what’s important. Pretty sure this won’t ruin the holiday, but it is so very tiring. I need more sleep. 😣

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