My car got broken into last night

[LittleClarkie]

All they did was smash in my driver side window, grab a briefcase I was stupid enough to have in the car, and run.

Problem is, I think that I had my father's tax info in that briefcase, and possibly a couple years of my own. So both our social security numbers are in somebody else's hands.

I might have also had some dad related death stuff in there, like any death certificates I had left and maybe stuff related to when I had to pay back the state for his Nursing Home Medicaid.

I don't know. I can't remember exactly. But I know the tax stuff was there.

I know there are worse things going on in the world than me losing one briefcase, but I'm upset that I may have lost some of my dad's stuff. And I'm scared about what the theives might do with my person info. I'm hoping they were petty theives and were disappointed in the contents of the case, as opposed to being happy with the contents.

I've already contacted the credit bureau, but didn't submit dad's info yet. I want a human being for that, and called too late to get one. So I plugged my info into the automated system.

Merry damn Christmas...

[Vektor]

1. Oh, jesus. That sucks. I am so sorry.

I assume you filed a police report, and all that...

[LittleClarkie]

6. Yep, police report, called the insurance, set up an appointment with

the glass people, called the credit bureau, got a machine, all with my older brother trailing behind me asking questions like "What are you going to do?" (I'd tell him) "What are you going to do then?" "Maybe you shouldn't have had that stuff in your car" (no duh)

He seemed to be trying to give me moral support, but he mostly succeeded in driving me batty.

[Vektor]

15. Family can do that, huh?

I love mine, but NO ONE pushes my buttons more successfully.

Best of luck getting this mess sorted out. I'm so sorry! :hug:

[TayTay]

2. I'm so sorry this happened to you.

You are probably right that these were dumb thieves who were looking for something valuable to hock for a quick buck. (But you never know.)

Hugs? :hug:

[LittleClarkie]

8. Hugs

:hug:

[wisteria]

3. How awful, I hope they get the individuals who did this to you.

Maybe, they aren't smart enough to know what to do with what you had in the case.

[LittleClarkie]

11. I'm hoping. If they'd have stopped to look

at what was in the bags (I had the back seat of a homeless person) they'd have found CDs, and some bills I was going to work on at Starbucks. Also, my guitar was sitting there in the back seat as well. But no. They just grabbed the briefcase and that was it.

[globalvillage]

4. I would look into a credit monitoring service

TransUnion (www.truecredit.com) will monitor your credit report and notify you of activity. Also place a fraud alert on your credit file by calling equifax, experian or transunion. Sounds like you may have done that.
You can get a free copy of your credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com
Also, the FTC had a hotline 1-877-IDTHEFT.

There may be a fee for the monitoring and the alert.

Good luck to you.

[LittleClarkie]

9. Thanks. The cop who came out told me about FTC

and from there I found out about the three credit companies. According to the FTC info, if you call one, they take care of calling the rest. That's cool. But I still would like to talk to a human being at one of these places to get my dad's info to them. The only "dead guy" info they had on the automated line was if you want to notify them that someone is dead. Well, that's not exactly it. It's just that I don't want dad to suddenly be buying stuff.

[sandnsea]

5. That's horrible

My gosh, that just stinks. Hopefully they will just toss it when they find there's no money or credit cards in it. Probably just some tweaker. I'm so sorry.

I hope you are able to get the window fixed, yes??

[LittleClarkie]

10. I should have the money yeah. I kinda have to. It's zero degrees here

I'd freeze my maguppies off.

[sandnsea]

13. That's why I asked

Can't have you driving around without your maguppies!!

[ProSense]

7. That's terrible.

Losing your SS# and personal info is really scary stuff. It's a major pain too.

Good luck getting that straightened out, LittleClarkie.

[LittleClarkie]

12. Somebody suggested I get new credit cards

but if I use the same SS#, what's the difference. I really don't want to have to get a new SS#. That would suck. Hopefully it won't come to that.

[ginnyinWI]

14. sorry to hear it

Hopefully they were just punks looking for money, and only threw it away.

[karynnj]

16. That's horrible

[Luftmensch067]

17. So sorry!

I hope you can get it straightened out soon and that something good will happen to balance it out... Good luck with the credit card stuff. I don't know enough, but can you get credit cards now without using your SS#'s?

[MH1]

18. Sorry to hear about this.

Hoping for the best, that they were only after money and won't know what to do with the personal info.

Good luck, and I hope you get things fixed without major hassles, and that the police catch the guy. (okay one can dream, right?)

:hug:

[LittleClarkie]

19. Thanks guys

I swear this is more like the lounge than the lounge. If I want to talk about something, even non-Kerry related, I can come in here it seems.

We are an all purpose forum, eh?

[JI7]

20. that sucks

i do hope they just got rid of it after looking for any money. i'm guessing if they were the type to make use of the id stuff then they would have been more professional type criminals who don't smash the windows of cars. hopefully everything turns out as best as can be in this situation.

[ray of light]

21. quick little clarkie sign up for

this program called "Pre-paid legal aid" hmmm...let me find the link:

http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite/Multisite?site=info&assoc=kellymoss

[beachmom]

22. I'm so sorry you were violated like that. It throws your whole notion

of the world out of wack, doesn't it? I had a friend who would get his car broken into (this is Atlanta) if he even just had some loose change in his car. They say not to even have an umbrella out in those parts. But I'm surprised this happened to you in the area I think you're from.

I kind of have already used this forum in a lounge capacity, so I, of course, welcome you to do so, too. I think it's because we "know" each other better here, and feel more comfortable.

Anyway, good luck with all that you have to do, and I hope this doesn't add even more to the grief you have been experiencing with your Dad. I'll send a prayer your way (although I'm not sure if I believe in God, but just in case He's out there, and at the very least my mental thoughts are with you.).

[StoryTeller]

23. Big hug for Little Clarkie

:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

I am saying a prayer for you right now, LC. A prayer for peace and joy that will be deeper than the hassle and outrage of what happened.

I do understand how you are feeling. Our house was broken into about a year and a half ago--on a Sunday morning, while we were at church listening to a sermon about the part in Matthew that says "Don't store up treasure for yourself on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal." We called up our pastor that afternoon and said we hadn't really been expecting to be an object lesson for the sermon. :) But it made us really angry because the thugs must have been casing our house and knew when we'd be gone.

I hope your Christmas will turn out to be a wonderful one despite this grinchly event. I'm glad you were able to get help so quickly in securing your personal information.

Great big hug to you! :hug:

[LittleClarkie]

24. Thanks.

The window is replaced now. The car is vaccumed and looking better than it has in years, as I pulled everything out of it. I've discovered my dad's death certificate and wallet, and even confirmed that other paperwork that would have had the SS# of my brother and sisters was not in the briefcase.

I keep trying to call the credit bureaus to talk to them about my dad's number, but I can't reach a human. And the one recorded message I got said that you don't have to put an alert on a deceased person. But I might mail all three companies with his death cert anyway, just to be sure.

I have to admit it's getting better... it's getting better all the time...(It can't get no worse)...