Stolen

It has been a pretty bad week domestically while everything else - work, friends, Boff has been good.

What happened was that on Wednesday night my sister was coming to stay so that morning I went to tidy my room a little because there was still some overflow from Hawaii unpacking. That's when I noticed that three cardboard boxes that I usually keep next to my recliner were protruding a bit. I don't like this because it makes it hard for me to climb the ladder to my loft. I was surprised I hadn't noticed it before.

So I slid them back in, then noticed that one box had its tabs poking out. I never leave my boxes like this, so I opened it, and found it was empty. It was my MacBook Pro box, which contained my old Mac Powerbook, its cable and an adaptor from a Canadian to Australian plug (as I bought it in Canada). I was planning on selling it on eBay after I came back from Hawaii. Someone had nicked it.

I felt ill. It wasn't the missing laptop that made me ill, but the fact that someone had been in my room when I was away. I just felt grateful that I had had the foresight to hide my MacBook Pro before I went away.

Anyway, I went through a few suspects in my head. There's of course my housemate Sam, who has a history of being sneaky (stealing food etc) AND of going into my room without letting me know (at least twice: once to retrieve a cushion for his dog and once to return an ethernet cable; when I went into his room to retrieve a jar of Vegemite, I told him about it the next time I saw him - we discussed this practice when he moved in. In fact, he initiated it).

There are his friends. He had friends over while I was away, a few friends a couple of times, he says. I spoke to him directly about it and said that if it was one of his friends, as his guests he is at least indirectly responsible for their behaviour. I have tasked him to ask them about it and have initiated a two-week no-questions-asked amnesty period. I may decide to go to the police (or at least a police friend) if this does not end in the recovery of the laptop.

The other option is my cleaners. This is a very slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. The reason I don't think it is them is because the Thursday I left for Hawaii was a cleaning day. Right before they were due, I left the door unlocked and went back to sleep without telling them I was still there. They did their hour and didn't come into my room; they are not hired to clean the bedrooms, just the public areas. There has been one cleaning day since the laptop disappeared where I wasn't present, so they are still a possibility.

A couple of intriguing things have happened since the initial discovery. One is that Sam is getting rid of a lot of stuff. DVDs, furniture etc. He could move out within the hour if he had a van or ute at his disposal to take his bed. This worries me a little.

The other thing is that I heard him in an argument on the phone the other day. He was half yelling at someone about having to sell the contents of his bedroom and also "having to sell her". I think he was talking about Ella, his dog. I haven't seen her since, plus her leash and her collar have disappeared from behind the door. Does this indicate money troubles? This worries me a little too.

It is not pleasant living in a state where the person who has keys to your house and access to all your possessions may be able to move out at any moment to a place where you can't trace them, and has motivation to sell things to get cash. That's a worst case scenario I don't like to contemplate but have been inadvertently coming back to for a couple of days now. I'm looking at surveillance options, for goodness sake.

The sooner he can move out without taking anything of mine so I can change the locks, the better. Otherwise, I have to be patient - and vigilant - until May 9.