Burglars Take Everything--but They Can’t Steal Victim’s Sanity

Paul Tasui is suffering from one of the unfortunate, but not uncommon, side effects of urban life. He returned to Eagle Rock from a week’s vacation in Mazatlan to find that his house was no longer a home. It had been stripped of everything.

Oh, sure, there was the odd can or two of soup left in the kitchen, but everything of any value at all, as well as a lot of the flotsam and jetsam of an average guy’s life, had been taken by burglars who broke in while Tasui was gone.

So much had been stolen, that Tasui, the 47-year-old owner of an auto transmission shop, needed a month to formally inventory everything missing for the police and the insurance company. Informally, though, Tasui, like thousands of other victimized homeowners around the city, can break the list down into useful categories--an exercise that, if nothing else, helps preserve one’s sanity.

Let’s talk about really nice things first--the trophies on the wall (Tasui is a hunter and he likes to keep reminders of his shoots) and the collection of rare coins.

Then there are the expensive but replaceable items--the guns, the gold watch, the van, the motorcycle, the television, the crystal and dinnerware, washer, dryer, refrigerator, microwave, stove, all of the furniture, kitchen air conditioner, woodworking tools and such.

And then there is everything else--the rugs, drapes and curtains, liquor and canned food, even a shower head.

Tasui’s reaction to the burglary a month ago is, like yours or mine would be, a bit complicated.

When the call to his Mazatlan hotel from his adult daughter came through, he explained in an interview Tuesday, there was the immediate feeling that something was badly wrong. After all, Tasui, who is divorced and lives alone, had only told his children and employees he would be in Mazatlan, keeping to himself the name of the hotel.

So if his daughter took the trouble to track him down, there must be a serious problem, he thought in the second or two after he heard her voice when he picked up the ringing phone.

The children? The grandchildren?

No, they were fine.

It’s simply that his house had been burglarized.

“I told my daughter immediately if nobody is hurt, then it’s all right because I can always get more material things. I have my children, my grandchildren, a high income, a lot of rental real estate. I have a good life.”

Then when Tasui put down the phone and thought about it--the feeling of being violated, the anger--he became sick.

“I was physically ill, I couldn’t sleep or eat,” Tasui said.

“Basically I’ve been working on stress lately,” he said. “I got a divorce, I got a 502 (drunk driving arrest), I know stress can kill you. But I’ve quit drinking, I’m much healthier, I play six hours of tennis a day. I try to be pretty cool mentally. I don’t want this thing to kill me.”

Turned to Friends

Tasui turned to his friends for sympathy, but friends have their own problems. He turned to the police for help, but the police have plenty of residential burglaries to deal with and his--though a bit bizarre in that everything was taken--is just another case that needs investigation.

Tasui can understand that. He can see how the police would have trouble with this one. Neighbors could give them only vague descriptions of the three men and the vehicles they spotted on Tasui’s isolated, hilly street behind Eagle Rock Plaza.

Sometimes Tasui gets angry at the neighbors for not noticing more, not jotting down a license number or two.

But then he realizes that is silly--”everybody knows everybody on the dead-end street,” but Tasui hadn’t told any of the neighbors he was leaving on vacation.

As for the burglars, Tasui, who is a contemplative man, can’t even stay angry at them.

“If I can’t have my things, I wish these creeps could enjoy it all as much as I did. Just because they’re creeps, doesn’t mean I wish anything bad for them. I controlled those material items for a time.

Gets Stronger

“The important thing is every time I come through a crisis, I get stronger.”

Nice philosophy, but still there is the fear.

Tasui has moved out of his house, renting it to someone else. And as he set about replacing what had been lost, “right away I went out and bought a gun,” he said.

Not that he would use it to defend a TV set or a rug, of course. Simple components of his good life are much too easily replaceable to require that sort of thing.

Better to be cool, be healthy, forget it, and next time, tell the neighbors when he goes on vacation. That’s life in an urban environment.