by Lynne Marie

Created on: April 15, 2008

The impact that a thief has on your life can be devastating. I know, because I fell victim to a crime of theft. There are so many could have', should have', would have', and if only' thoughts running through my mind. But the damage has been done, and although I wish I could turn the clock back and do it over - I can't. All that I can do now is move forward, and focus on preventing something like this from happening again.

I am a good person. I am a do-gooder', who will help anyone that needs it - even if it means putting myself out in the process. When you live your live with positive vibes, you never think about someone doing something to harm you. Think again.

Let's start with Tuesday. I start washing a load of laundry, and realize about two hours later, that my washing machine had died half way through the cycle. Not good. My children had all had the flu the previous day, and I had a boat load of blankets, towels, and clothing that needed to be cleaned due to the excessive vomiting. I'm a single mother, with three little ones, and their father is out of the picture. I don't have disposable cash lying around to just run out and buy a new machine. So this is something that will have to wait. The laundry mat is there for a reason, people use them everyday, I can do it too. It will have to wait for the weekend however. I work two jobs, and there was no time to sit for hours watching a dryer spin. So I gather up about six loads of laundry, sort it, and leave it in the laundry room.

On to Saturday afternoon. My landlord had been out of town, and was to be returning Saturday. I went to the bank to withdraw my eleven hundred dollars for rent. I also wanted to prepay next months rent, so that I could focus on purchasing a new washing machine. I withdrew twenty two hundred, and noticed that left me with only a mere fifteen dollars in my savings account. I work at a bar/restaurant at night and on the weekends. I was scheduled to have Saturday night off, but was called in at the last minute. My babysitter is the daughter of a woman I work with, and I immediately called her to see if she was available. Thankfully - she was. I really needed this extra shift, so that I could work on earning money toward a washing machine.

At 6 pm, I rushed to work, forgetting that I needed to pay my landlord. I had put all of my family's dirty laundry into the back of my SUV, which also held my very expensive mountain bike, and my five year old daughter's bike. I figured I would go to the

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