We arrived in Amsterdam and easily made our way to the house where we are staying. We had to wait, however, for the woman who was bringing us the key. She was late, apologized and immediately began to help us unload the car. Ed was parked about three car lengths from our front door. Our next door neighbor was sitting outside on a bench catching some rays as we moved things from the car to the house. In a split second, a man entered the house, in full view of the neighbor and exited by jumping on a bike before we walked from the car back to the house. The neighbor was very upset and explained in Dutch what had happened. We were asked to check if anything was missing. Now, you've got to picture all our bags, groceries, hiking poles, tennis racket, exercise equipment – half in and half out of the car... At first glance, nothing of consequence seemed to be missing; I had the passports and large sums of euros tucked safely away. So, when the police arrived (called by the neighbor) I reported that nothing had been taken. Knowing better, they said that if we realized later that indeed he had taken something, to file a report at the police station.
We unpacked and got ready to go out for dinner. It was at this point I realized that I couldn't find a little purse that I use to carry essentials instead of a conspicuous handbag. The creep grabbed it when he entered the house. It only had 23 euros but I had to cancel the credit card, and now I will need a new phone and it also had my FL Driver's license that I will have to replace when I get home.
Our neighbors are really very sweet and they were so upset! This is a really nice area where things like this don't happen! The houses are lovely and we have a private courtyard behind the house that only neighbors have access to through their homes.
She felt awful that she didn't challenge him and I told her it was probably better that she didn't. Lars, her husband, insisted on going with us to the police station.
We made friends with the police woman who wrote up the report. She was so friendly and helpful; she even wants to read my blog!
If this is the worse thing that happens, I think we are pretty lucky. Although I would prefer to meet people under different circumstances, it has turned out well. Our neighbor keeps checking on us. She said she felt so badly that she didn't sleep last evening. And our police friend will check each day to see if someone turns in the empty bag..
