Yesterday night, there was an attempted burglary three houses down from ours.
It was around half past ten and I was still up watching tv when I heard Luz and Allen madly go down the stairs from their room. They heard frantic yells from outside alerting the neighbors that there was a burglar running about.
We scrambled around the house locking windows and double checking doors. We huddled all together for a while on the kitchen stairs and talked lowly among ourselves, trying not to freak out. Shortly after, we went out and joined the neighbors to find out what had happened.
Apparently, the robber entered through the compound's back fence and was trying to break through the bedroom window's screen. The lone house occupant heard the scratching noise from downstairs and upon checking what it was, saw a man trying to climb through his window. It was then that he cried for help. One of the neighbors heard him scream and saw the robber retreat from the window, run away, and disappear into the dark. The eyewitness did not clearly see the face, but could only make up that he wore shorts and a t-shirt, and that he was carrying a gun.
Hearing these details was not very reassuring for us, in the least. We shared the same back fence as that house and if the robber escaped by jumping through terraces to exit on the other side, it meant that he could have gone through our own house. More importantly, both our houses were of the same configuration and the bedroom that was attempted to be broken into corresponded to my own bedroom.
Barangay officials and the police came. And it might have been better if they didn't. They came, loud voices and all, strutting about like they owned the place and they did absolutely NOTHING. Well, they blamed the victim and pointed out obvious things, if that counts. Luz and I stood there incredulous at the utter stupidity of what was happening. The tenant whose house was burglarized was a student, a kid around twenty years old or so. They were blaming him on his lack of security precautions. WTF?! They said this and that was the problem. This and that should have been done. They did not check the torn window screen or the scaled fence. They did not take down notes or fingerprints. And they did not even know there was an eyewitness until the neighbors interrupted them on their long, useless, ego-stroking tirade. "Ay, may nakakita? Ay, may baril?" They could have known these details much earlier if they shut the heck up for a few minutes and actually did their job. They went about like it was a privilege for us to have them onsite. But even then, they did not accomplish anything. They're not unlike any of those kanto tambays who just came by and offered their unsolicited opinions after gossip-mongering. "So paano? Wala na tayo magagawa, wala na, eh." The gall!
When we came back home, Luz asked me if I was ok sleeping alone. She told me that I could crash in their room or she could stay in mine. She and I share the horrible experience of having our apartment broken into last year and somehow we knew that we're scared more than we care to admit. I said I was ok and would just leave the light on when I sleep. But of course, sleep did not come. Paranoia set in. I was expecting my glass windows to be broken anytime and a robber would be aiming a gun at me.
It was probably around 4 or 5 am when I finally slept out of sheer exhaustion. I found out without surprise that none of us had slept well during the night. The darkness carried with it some unknown sinister event that had us on edge. We were all practically just waiting for daylight to come so we could all breathe a little easier. We made plans of placing security measure around the house, of looking into the possibility of moving into an inner unit. So many things to consider, so many things to do.
The next thing you know, it's nighttime again.
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