OC HIGH STUDENT NEWS AND VIEWS : Break-In Shatters Illusion of Safety

On a chilly day last year, someone tried to break into our house. We came home to find slashed window screens and a small, triangular hole in our window, with jagged cracks and broken bits of glass.

When a policeman arrived, he told us that we needed more protection, more than the wooden bars we put in the window frames, more than the locks that prevented the windows from being opened. The policeman said he has motion sensors on his windows.

Fear was my first reaction. Overwhelming, uncontrollable fear. What if the burglars had gotten into our house? What if they had stolen our valuables?

But worst of all, what if they hadn’t been scared off by our entrance? What if they had killed us for the crime of returning to our own home in the middle of their heist? A million “what if’s” sprang to mind.

My fear was rapidly replaced by anger. How could someone do this to us? What had we ever done wrong; who had we ever hurt to deserve something like this?

The answer was simple: Nothing.

We had done nothing wrong, but it did not matter. Crime attacks anyone and everyone. I was furious at some unknown person for destroying the peace, the sanctity that had always existed in our house.

Then I realized that the safety had always been an illusion, now shattered by reality. In the end, I was left with a feeling of helplessness. Why me? These two words ran constantly through my mind. There was nothing that I or anyone else could do to prevent people from attacking my house. There was nothing I could do to recapture the reassurance that I was protected in my house--untouchable and secure. There was nothing I could do at all; I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t hide from something that I could neither see nor fight.

I remember when my father talked about getting the wooden bars for our window tracks and the chains for our doors. At the time, I had laughed at his paranoia. I can laugh no more; I can no longer fool myself into believing that robbery is something that will happen to someone else, but not me, never me. Maybe the motion sensors are a good idea.

It is scary that even in one of the safest cities in the country, people must still live with the fear that plagues the rest of the nation. No one is safe anymore. There is no place in America where crime has not become a part of life. This isn’t to frighten people into lives of anxiety and apprehension. I didn’t write this article for pity or sympathy. I wrote it because everyone should know, like I do now, that crime can attack anyone. Even you.