13 Reasons I Want to Move

We have lived in this house for 9 years. There are many reasons we want to move: we've outgrown this house and need more space, we want to own a place with a backyard larger than a matchbook, we want more snow rather than snowless cold weather, we are tired of 9 months of rain every year, and we want to live in a house on a quieter street where the kids can safely play outside. But there are other, more frustrating things about living here that makes us want to move...

1. There's gang activity in the area. Two weeks after we moved in, we found ourselves calling 911 when we witnessed two young men beating up a third young man in the middle of the street in the middle of the night. Turned out one of the houses across the street on my block was a known gang house. The two were angry that the third was in their girl's place even though she invited him in...or something like that. Thank goodness they were evicted when the house was sold to a new owner. At another time, I witnessed a drive-by shooting one block away. Fortunately, they didn't hit anything or anyone.

2. Someone stole our stroller off of the porch. We were barely eeking by on a small single income with a new mortgage, and a new baby. That stroller was a gift from my dad and it meant a lot to us at the time. We could not afford to replace it. Fortunately, my brilliant husband suggested I call around the local children's resale shops. One of them had just bought it. We were able to positively identify it over the phone so we were able to recover it without cost. Despite having the resale stores records, the police refused to act until we contacted a city counselman. Even then all they did was "investigate" and refused to do anything to the thief who claimed he found our stroller in the park. They said that they could not prove he was the person who stole it. Isn't it illegal to possess or sell stolen property?

3. Someone broke into our car. While our car was parked in our driveway, someone decided to break into it. They broke the window to get into it. They stole the entire center console with the stereo, my husband's few tools and his suade jacket. Again, we could not afford to replace what was lost. We fixed the window and gaping hole in the dash on credit. My dad replaced my husband's tools. The jacket...well, he went without and has actually never gotten another suade jacket. The police agreed to take a report over the phone.

4. Someone broke into our neighbor's house. The woman of the house was in Vietnam caring for a sick relative at the time and the man of the house was at work. The thief obviously knew their schedule because he hit their house at exactly the right time.

5. Someone put a slingshot pellet through our car window. I hope they had fun. Us? We had to replace the driver's side window.

6. Someone broke into another neighbor's garage. I don't remember what they took but I remember that they busted the side door (the people entrance). I was so angery when he told me. He is a sweet old man in his 80s.

7. A drunk driver hit our car and ran. The driver hit our car so hard that they moved it from the street where it was parked against the curb to my neighbor's front yard even though it had the parking break set. The car was totalled costing our insurance thousands of dollars and us our $500 deductible. We had to contact the city counsel again. Despite having car remains positively identifying the color and type of car that hit ours and an eye witness, nothing was done other than to take a report.

8. Someone broken into our car. This time they managed to get in without breaking anything but they stole all of the CDs he had in it...a visor-type CD full of Christian music. They also left behind their cigarette butt. Nice.

9. Someone stole mail off of our front porch. Did you know that priority mail will pick up at your house? They do...if the package you left for them is still there and hasn't been stolen before they arrive. Fortunately, the package, destined for an ebay buyer, was only worth about $10. Ever since, we tell every company mailing packages to us to instruct the delivery company to not leave the package on the porch and require signature confirmation. They never do.

10. We had a meth lab across the street. We came home one night to lots of activity across the street. Our neighbor came over to inform us what was up. Apparently, the house behind her was a meth lab and the police cracked down on it. Clean up was in process when we arrived home. I was a bit freaked when I realized that I had returned their dog to them...knocking on their open door to do so. They also had a kid living there.

11. Our neighbor's purse was snatched. Someone pushed our 60ish year old neighbor to the ground and stole her purse as she was waiting for the bus half a block from our house. Her purse had everything in it including her license with her address and keys to her house. She was badly shaken by the experience. The police took a report and suggested my neighbor not carry a purse when walking or riding the bus.

12. A drunk driver hit our new (to us) van and ran. The police wouldn't even take a report this time until I contacted city counsel...again. (We LOVE this city counselman.) Two days later a witness knocked on my door and told me this story... After hitting my car, she hit another car and got stuck for a minute. At this point, the witness tried to take her keys away from her. She got her car moving and continued on her merry way until she hit a third car. They told me the make, model, and license plate of her car. I got into my broken car (still drivable with $3000 of damage) and drove to the third car. I knocked on their door to give them the information I had just received and he told me this story....Her car refused to move after she hit his car but she was spinning tires trying to get away. They were able to call the police and get her. He told me she was taken to jail but the police report indicates that she wasn't arrested. She had two kids in the car with her as well. This just happened in November and we have not been able to recover our $300 deductible. I don't know if my insurance company has been successful in recovering their $3000. I have to give them a call and follow up.

13. Someone stole my hubcaps. I left to take my toddler to the doctor this morning to discover my hubcaps missing. The only reason I had those hubcaps is #12. The collision repair company couldn't match my existing hubcaps so they had to replace all four. Fortunately, the hubcaps will only cost me $35.89 but do I really want to replace them so they go missing again next month?

Meet Zach and Sybil...
They are quite protective of us. They bark when ever someone walks on our property...even if it just someone walking along the sidewalk. They greet everyone who comes to the door. They'll attack anyone who tries to hurt a member of the family....they've nipped at us if we aren't careful in play-sparring in their presence. At least I know we'll probably be protected if anyone decides to try to enter our home.

There are houses for sale nearby. Wanna be my neighbor?

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