Cambriolage

Well, not really: attempted cambriolage is more accurate.  Which, I am told, is very unusual for our little community of apartments.  Yesterday afternoon, after doing our apartment walk-through and getting our keys, we headed out to run some errands during the afternoon.  When we returned, the little one was asleep so L stayed in the car with him while I headed inside to drop off our Ikea loot in the apartment.  We had a little trouble understanding the key system earlier in the afternoon, so I didn't think it was too wierd when I had trouble getting the key in the door to unlock it.  To make sure, I had L come inside and have a go at it, but neither of us could get the key in the lock - one of the pistons (right word?) had popped up into the empty space and was jammed there, making us and our keys useless.

What do you do when you're in a foreign country, with no phone, no internet access, no knowledge of the immediate neighborhood, it's dark and raining, and you can't get into your apartment?  Oh, and what do you do when it's a Friday night and all of your appliances will be delivered on Saturday morning? 

Our first thought was to drive around some of the major streets in the city and look for a locksmith.  Given that it was dark, rainy, and after business hours, though, we quickly abandoned that plan in favor of stopping at the closest gas station.  I went inside, explained our predicament, and the station attendants were kind enough to dig out the yellow pages and make some calls. 

The first locksmith I called suggested that it would be much cheaper if I could wait until business hours, and that she could not send anyone until Saturday.  If we weren't expecting our appliances early the next morning, that would have been ok, but given the situation we really needed to figure this out ASAP.  And, I figured, how bad could it be?  The second locksmith told us he could send someone within 45 minutes, but when he found out we didn't have a cell phone he refused to send someone out.  At this point I pretty much snapped at him that it was cold, rainy, we had a child in the car, we were locked out of an apartment we just moved into, in a country we just moved to, and how ridiculous he was being.  To my surprise, he agreed, and sent someone out 25 minutes later.

L and I were sure that the locksmith would spend about 30 seconds, determine we were completely incompetent at opening our own door, open it for us and be on his way.  So, L stayed in the car with the (thankfully still sleeping) little one while I headed back into the apartment with the locksmith.  Imagine my surprise when he told me that the reason I couldn't open the door is because the lock had been busted by someone trying to break in to our apartment!

We must have had "sucker" written all over us (new to the country, no phone, no keys, no phone number to the property manager, baby in the car) but given how little options we had, we were stuck with what we could get.  The locksmith had a new keyset (of course, only one option) with him to install, but it just so happened to be a ridiculous (500€) lock that has four individually chipped keys as well as a separate code that's needed to duplicate the key set.  Super secure, and I appreciate that, but really - 500€???  Add that to the 300€ emergency locksmith fee and we were staring at over 800€ to get back into our apartment, only 6 hours after taking possession.

What really pisses me off (other than the locksmith) is that obviously someone knew we were just moving in.  I understand that coincidences happen, but really?  We didn't even have a single item in the apartment yet.  Obviously this amateur didn't case the apartment properly, and then couldn't even bust a simple lock.  Thanks for nothing, loser.

Next steps: try to file a claim with our renters insurance (I'm told it "should" be reimbursed, but not exactly sure yet, because my policy only began that day), and then head to the police department tomorrow to file a report (necessary for said reimbursement).  We now have a super reinforced entry door (double deadbolt) and I told a few of our new neighbors, on the off chance they had noticed anything unusual.  There is some renovation work being done in one of the units in our building, so there are more people than usual coming in and out. 

On a better note, most of the appliances were delivered today.  Our discount floor-model dishwasher turned out to be a dud and needs to be replaced, and the stove/oven will be delivered on Monday (finally - after waiting 7 years I am finally cooking with gas again!).  We'll get our Ikea purchases delivered Wednesday: after realizing that individual boxes weighed in at 55kg, I realized there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to tie them to the roof of our tiny car, or haul them up the stairs into our place.  Fortunately around here, many people get Ikea stuff delivered so they have a pretty sweet system.

Time for sleep, for all of us.  It's been a long 24 hours!

- E