Ask Slashdot: Starting From Scratch After a Burglary?

New submitter sc30317 writes "My house got robbed on Friday, and all of our electronics got stolen. Everything. Now, I have to go out and buy all new electronics with the insurance money. We had five TVs (don't ask), three laptops, a Bose Sound dock with iPod, a digital camera, and a desktop stolen. It's looking like I am going to get around $10K from the insurance company to replace everything. What would you do if you had to replace ALL of your technology in your house at once? I'm thinking: replace TVs; nice Desktop; new speakers; and new, cool stuff I don't know about (suggestions welcome). I already added a DVR security system, so hopefully the new things won't get burgled! Looking for suggestions to utilize my money in order to get the best stuff. Also, no Windows computers allowed in my house."

Comments

First purchase

[PPH]

Buy a mean dog.

Re:First purchase

[ArcadeMan]

This is slashdot. Recommend buying a Boston Dynamics Big Dog.

Re:First purchase

[silas_moeckel]

Na get a nice lovable dog.and protection training an aggressive dog is useless / dangerous. That said a nice female defending her home will ripe the face off anybody not supposed to be there.while your newborn can grab yank and otherwise harass her and she will just look at you for help.

Re:First purchase

[arthurpaliden]

No, motion activated mini-gun.

Re:First purchase

[Niris]

This.

I had a female huskey while living in an apartment growing up, and we could be rough with that dog to our hearts content and she'd either love to play, or would just get annoyed and run off. One day someone jumped the fence and broke the glass door into the apartment, and all we saw when we got home (other than the glass) was a nice bit of blood and a trail going back towards the fence.

Re:First purchase

[Runaway1956]

Barbarian? That is quite telling. You can't tell the difference between a person defending his home, and the barbarian who broke into his home. No wonder our "justice system" is so messed up.

Shoot the thief dead, dead, dead, and hope that he hasn't bred yet!

Re:First purchase

[PPH]

they're just going to shoot the dog, or kill it with the crowbar they used to get the door open.

That's why you don't want a yappy dog. You get one that just stands there, in the dark. And then tears the throat out of the intruder once they walk around the corner in the hallway.

Joke:

This burglar breaks into a house. After walking around in the dark for a few moments, he hears a voice, "Jesus is watching you."
Looking around, he sees a parrot, and sees it repeat, "Jesus is watching you."
He chuckles and says, "Really? What's your name, parrot?"
The parrot replies, "Moses."
The burglar says, "Who would name a parrot Moses?"
"The same guy who named the Rottweiler Jesus."

Personal Information

[Jeng]

If they have your desktop then they likely have all of your personal information. I would be rather worried about that portion of the theft and would be curious how one would work to make sure that the information they stole would be useless.

Re:Personal Information

[ArcadeMan]

If someone wants all the information to become useless, they would need to:
- close all credit cards and get new ones from different companies
- close all bank accounts and open new ones to a different bank
- get a divorce or get married, whatever changes your marital status
- change your name, race, hair color, eye color, sex, religion and language
- move to another country so that all details of the address are obsolete
- close your Facebook account and open a Google+ account

Now, I know that last step seems impossible to do, but don't give up, you can do it!

Wait to see what you need based on use.

[concealment]

Buy nothing. Wait for a need; then research what fits it best.

You've been given an opportunity in disguise here.

Do you really want all that stuff that consumes time? Only one way to tell: wait for yourself to need it, then buy it as you determine those needs based on what you actually use.

Re:Wait to see what you need based on use.

[CyberKnet]

Unfortunately a lot of the time insurance claims don't work this way. I had a lightning strike recently that took out 90% of my electronics.

My policy was "new for old", but until I bought the "new", I received only the depreciated value of the "old".

If it were only this, I would still advocate your strategy, however there was also a 6 month time limit to purchase the "new", send receipts in, and get reimbursed for the depreciation.

Long story short - you may lose out on a lot of money if you don't replace that stuff now.

They'll Be Back

[brainboyz]

Whatever you decide on, don't buy everything all at once. They'll be casing your place again in a few days because they know you'll be replacing everything with nice NEW stuff.

How is the service?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

How good would you rate the service provided by your burglar? Reliable? Does the job in the appointed window? Is the window reasonably short? Does not take more than what is contracted, right? What kind of fees? How untraceable is the guy?

Basically, would you hire him again, when it is time to do the next round of upgrades?

Re:Dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

"Burgled" is correct in British / International English. Only Americans use the hideous "burglarized".

Re:Dictionary

[pclminion]

Well, it just follows the pattern. Burglars don't burgle, they burglarize. Murderers don't murder, they murderize. Etc.

Re:MOVE OUT while there's less stuff

[MozeeToby]

Crime is as low as it's been in 30 years, violent crime even more so. This image that our society is crumbing is one that is produced by the media and backed up by the human instinct to remember 'the good old days'.