I can't seem to get over my stuff being stolen, Help?

[Claymore]

I've grown up knowing some shitty people, and since I was a kid, I've pretty consistently had things stolen from me. About three months ago, however, my PS3 that I'd left at my mother's house was stolen, along with her HDTV.

Now, Gaming is a hobby I take pretty seriously. Over the years, I've sunk a lot of time and money into that PS3, and with the games downloaded onto it, it was probably worth about $700+.

That may be a lot of money, but the thing is, I'm still finding myself filled with absolute *rage* almost every day. Just this morning, I woke up because I was dreaming about the entire incident. I've never been "happy" about getting robbed, but I find myself getting really worked-up in a way that I just never remember happening in the past. Maybe it is the investment; when I was younger, I never had anything more than about $100 stolen, save for my bike one time.

Of course, what makes matters worse is that I have two suspects as to who stole those things. The first is my cousin, whom I've sacrificed a lot for in trying to be good family to him (his dad went to jail when he was really young). The other is my mom's neighbor's kid, who is probably about 17 or 18 now, and just last year we know he shot a BB through one of her windows while everyone was out. I'm not 100% about either of them, of course, but I feel pretty strongly that it was one of the two.

Of course, I tried turning to the local Sheriff's office when we first realized the stuff was stolen, but she lives in the jurisdiction of a bunch of do-nothing idiots that, in the months since I've contacting them, having even so much as contacted any of us, so clearly they just don't give a shit. I even told them I had the goddamn Serial Number for the system, and they didn't care to even jot it down!

The thing is... I'm getting worried about my own state of mind. I find it harder and harder to actually feel "happy". I'm constantly thinking about stuff like this -- that someone can just take whatever they want from you, that it might even be my own flesh and blood who did it -- and to be honest, I'm getting to a point that I feel like I'm just gonna "snap". Now, I would never "go postal" or anything that mindlessly violent, but I seriously spend more time than I care to admit, just thinking about taking matters into my own hands, attempting to track down the people responsible, and just beating the hell out of them when I find them.

I'm not saying that I feel unjustified in feeling that way, but... at this point, I feel like I'm the one being hurt, twice over. Not only did we have a shitload of stuff stolen, but I feel like I've also been robbed of all peace-of-mind. Do any of you have any sort of advice? And before anyone suggests it, I don't have the money to see a psychologist.

[Vargur]

Sounds like you need to move out of whatever state you're in (Texas?), else you won't escape those people.
Only thing I've ever had stolen from me (here in Europe) was a realistic looking toy handgun from my own hands about 18 years ago... lol.

[Spectral]

Leave the shittastic area in which thing's are being stolen. If it's family that's stealing things, and no one will do anything about it, all the more reason to extricate yourself from whereever you're living.

[Raphtheone]

Sounds like you've had the same experience with your police, as I've had with the police here in Sweden (not bashing, but they honestly don't care, or can't care). It sounds like they (the criminal(s)) hit home with the theft of your PS3. You could become a police officer yourself, but then you'd probably just be part of the system of There's-nothing-I-can-do. Run for office instead, and make the changes needed for a better, and more secure society. Decide that you want to rid the world from this problem, turn your anger to motivation, fuel that fire to reach your goals.

From what I gather, if you solve the case yourself and go to the police, they only require a medium amount of convincing to go and sort things out.

[Anakso]

Honestly the only thing that can fix this problem is moving, if your police (Or sheriff I guess) won't even investigate and your things being stolen is an every day occurrence, definitely move or beef up security a lot. Either way it's going to cost a bit but it's probably worth it considering how often you say this is happening.

For security, rather than just an alarm system you could get those windows that have metal wiring through them or get the metal wiring thing that you put on the outside of your windows. It looks a bit ugly but good for security. Even better but I've never actually seen them outside of Australia are these metal blind type things (Tried googling them to get their name/a pic but can't for the life of me find them), it's just a metal sheet stored above your window so while you're in and during the day it's up and your window looks normal and nice, but when you leave (or at night) you bring it down and all your windows are covered by a metal sheet (painted so they don't look ugly) they're quite a common sight where I live. There isn't much crime where I live but it's hot and they block out the sun so the air conditioning can keep your house nice and cool.
That and a good lock/secure screen door and your house will be pretty well protected.

I can't help you with getting over the theft, but doing one of those two things will at least give you some peace of mind for the future.

[poser765]

What exactly do you expect the police to do? Do you want CSI to dust for prints and look for DNA? How many man hours should be invested in your stolen game system? I know man, it sucks...It really does. I've had stuff stolen several times and it really does hurt. The fact of the matter is, the police don't do anything because there are far more important things they are busy with and more effective ways for them to keep the population safe. When stuff gets stolen you call the police for a report for insurance. Not a resolution and return of property.

[Deleted]

Ahh come on, you don't really expect the police to follow up on your "suspects" when you have no actual proof what so ever?

Get an insurrance policy that will cover theft, and protect your stuff better in the future. Instead of feeling all sad about it, let it be a lesson that you need to improve your approach on how you protect your stuff.

[Rocko9]

Ahh come on, you don't really expect the police to follow up on your "suspects" when you have no actual proof what so ever?

Get an insurrance policy that will cover theft, and protect your stuff better in the future. Instead of feeling all sad about it, let it be a lesson that you need to improve your approach on how you protect your stuff.

This, and move out to a better area in your city.

A friend of mine had his 1911 stolen, he didn't have any evidence, so they didn't do anything about it. I've had a GPS stolen out of my truck, same thing, no evidence, I'm stuck replacing a key cylinder and putting the old radio back in.

[Skippy88]

I feel for you. I've had a couple break-ins at work and so has my brother and you feel so violated. I totally understand the rage thing. You want to beat the shit out of them.

Police in real life is not like what you see on tv or movies. Unless they have some evidence or suspects right off the bad it's extremely tough to track the stolen goods as they could be anywhere. Your better off trying to track down the goods yourself. Look online, search local pawnshops, newspaper clippings, etc. One of my brother's break-ins were recovered when an officer pulled over a couple of teens on a unrelated matter. They had a bunch of CD's but the officer knew they weren't theirs because one was an Elmo's music CD. They other break-ins have never been solved including an as/400 server which we have no idea what they would do with.

The other thing I'm curious about is if you can contact Sony and see if they can alert you if they notice your PS3 come online. Might be a lost cause but it can't hurt.

[Neurodilation]

Have you considered confronting your cousin and this neighbor kid yourself? I know that's what I would do, particularly if I suspected family of being at fault. It would be a pretty big mess if I found out a cousin stole from me. That's all I'm gonna say.

[Isoge]

I've never had my stuff taken away from me. You know why? I might not be bad-ass, but I sure try to act the role. IF someone would do this to me, and I knew who might be the person, you can bet he would head a knock on his door and a slap in face.... with a chair.... twice. You don't always have to be bad-ass. All you really need is a chair.

And on a more serious note, I would confront them. I would threaten them with going to the police or sherrif. Or just threaten to beat them up if they don't give it back. I would cry all day for at least a week if I had my ps3 stolen. Don't know how much I've spent on games (expenses were already fairly high, but flew sky high once I found myself enjoying the old ps2 and ps1 games again). So I would do everything I could to get it back Good luck in getting yours back!

[Zao11]

I had similar things happen to me when I was growing up. I was about 13 or 14 at the time which isn't an easy age to begin with. First I had 2 'friends' over to my Dad's house. I was naive I guess, but I was inadvertently showing them what time no one was at home and where the valuable stuff was. The next day someone broke in and stole some of my Dad's stuff, I knew it was them, but I couldn't prove it.

The other incident that was probably even more shitty- I was always the last person to leave the house to go to school and one morning as I was about to leave, my Sister (who had been kicked out for various reasons, but who I still had a decent relationship with) calls and said that she was hungry, and asked if I could please leave the door unlocked so she could get some food. I did. Her and her boyfriend came in, broke into my Dad and Step-mom's room, stole all her jewelry and I was left to explain to my Dad what happened. Good times.

Only advice I can really give is let it go and learn from the situation. It's not easy, but any kind of retaliation on your part is going to make a shitty situation that much worse.