Vandalism comes to Shangri-La

MY condolences. The building my painting studio is located in was busted into sometime last week. I was the one to discover it Saturday morning... there was water everywhere (don't know if it was due to vandals or it was an unrelated event - the building is old, under-maintained and largely empty and there's just three tenants in an otherwise large industrial space) and a few of my paintings were sitting in about a half inch of water... going to have to take measures against mold now and hope the wooden stretchers don't warp out on me. More importantly one of our storage rooms we rent was busted into with a crowbar or something and several of our tools were stolen... lots of paint guns and the like (my gal's a scenic painter in the film industry)... the paint equipment alone is a couple grand to replace, easy. We still don't know what all was lifted. The cops, who took roughly ten hours to finally show up, think it was an inside job as the entrance doors show no sign of force (although there was a newly-smashed window elsewhere it was too small for anyone to go through).

There are carpets now soaked in water and already starting to stink like vomit. We were going to move to studio into our own house anyway in three months' time but now we have to get out ASAP and throw everything into storage. It's frustrating to know that someone had probably been eying the place and was merely waiting for a chance to go in and start sniffing about.

Stuff happens. There are thieves and small-time crooks everywhere... here or in Shangville. In rural areas most locals know the thieves, that's all - heck, the thieves are locals too. In our case we'll never know who made off with our gear. Stuff like this happens, you feel so exposed. But hey, on a relative scale, it's certainly better than a home invasion or an armed robbery. I've been a victim of the latter when I was a teenager and it sure wasn't something I'd care to repeat.