An unsettling event

[taylweaver]

So when people decide to go to Israel (or not to), the first things they often consider is security. They worry about things like suicide bombers, and now the missiles hitting the north. I am not so concerned with these things in terms of my personal safety. (While it is true that I am not riding the busses - at my father's request - I don't think they are any more threatened by terrorists than the New York City subway system.)

Going to different places raises different kinds of concerns. When we went to Italy, mbarr and I guarded our valuables carefully at all hours of the day and night because we were told the biggest danger we faced in Italy was that of pickpickets.

But it turns out all cities, no matter how holy and safe feeling, have their share of criminals.

Which we discovered the hard way when we (my parents and I) woke up yesterday (Monday) morning.

While getting ready for his day, my father opened his wallet, and discovered that his cash was no longer inside it. He was certain he would not have left his cash anywhere else. My mother and I kept suggesting other places he might have put it, confused as to where it could have gone since the day before.

Then my mother opened her own wallet. Also empty.

It seems that, overnight, a thief snuck into our apartment.

At first, the loss of cash was the more upsetting element - two hundred shkalim here, a hundred American from there, etc.

More disturbing in the long term, however, was the fact that the money was stolen WHILE WE WERE IN THE APARTMENT.

The money was there, my parents are sure, when both of them went to bed - and when else would their money have been in the same place? The thief, it seems, somehow got onto our balcony and through the open doors (we didn't think anyone could do that, and the doors don't lock anyway), took my mother's money from her wallet where it sat on the table in the livingroom, then took my father's from his wallet in my parents' BEDROOM.

They were asleep, and a stranger was in their room.

He (or she, I suppose) may have entered my room as well. Every pocket in my purse was unzipped (good thing they were all empty to begin with) - and I am not sure if I left it that way or not.

Then, when he was done, he unlocked the front door, and left.

The reality of it hasn't quite hit me, since my money was in a random pocket, not a wallet, and thus was not stolen. (Hooray for not having a wallet, I suppose.)

But even on the rational level, it is disturbing. A stranger in our apartment, in our bedrooms where we slept.

The bad news is, there's no way to catch someone who stole only cash.

The good news is, he only took cash, and cash is not too hard to replace, relative to other stuff. He did nothing to physically hurt us. He also left all of the credit cards, and did not take any other valuables. There was no stress of cancelling cards and ordering new ones from a foreign country, and there was also no loss of irreplacable jewelry or digital cameras with uncopied photos, etc. So it could have been worse.

Still, we had to learn how to close the "trisim" - I don't know how to translate that word - it's the barrier on the window that blocks out the sun - but also does what the barriers stores put down overnight do, in this case - it will keep people from getting in from the balcony.

But who would have thought we'd need to worry about that?

People talk about not feeling safe in Israel, but who would ever have thought that my family would need to feel unsafe in this particular way, not from the threat of terror, but from that of the common thief?

It's very strange.