Several days ago my house was broken into. I would like the thieves to know exactly what they did.

To the thieves that broke into my house:

I never knew that a person could have such a good and bad day all rolled into one day. I did, in fact, experience that the other day.

This may be hard for you to understand but the day started out great. I received an announcement, from my book publisher that the press release announcing the publication of my book was being sent out to the news media throughout the country. My dream was no longer a dream, but, in fact, it was reality.

Then, I received a message that my house had been broken into. All of a sudden that beautiful day turned to garbage.

On my way home, I wondered what had been stolen.

It wasn't hard for you to find the laptop on which I wrote my book and you took it from me. But, what you didn't realize was that it also contained the research and beginnings of my next book.

I kept several jars of pocket change and you also managed to find them. What you didn't realize was that one of the jars was an emergency fund that I could use to buy food, when my paycheck didn't stretch far enough. You also found my food basket money, which had 3 or 4 $20-Bills in it, which had to last me another week. Another jar was for my grandson's college education.

The jar of dollar bills you found was money I would give to the homeless that I meet on the street. I will bet that you didn't give any of the money you stole to the homeless.

The DVD player you took was an older model and it didn't work that well. That was the DVD player my grandson and I used to watch rented movies on, because it is too expensive to go to a theater.

The Game Boy you took was my grandson's toy. I doubt that you will get as much enjoyment from it as he did.

Additionally, it won't be as easy for me to fix the window that you easily kicked in.

Maybe you could answer my eight-year-old grandson's questions, because I sure can't. Why did they break into our house, we really don't have anything? Why did they have to take my toys? What makes people do something like that? Why don't they just get a job and buy their own things? Why did they have to be mean like that?

My grandson asks some pretty good questions.

Just so you know. You didn't just affect me by your break-in. You affected my family, the future of my grandson, the homeless, and those I might have thought about helping in the future.

In conclusion the only thing I have to say is that I am ashamed of you and what you did!

Charlie Peters

Burien