After my house was broken into, it didn’t feel like home anymore. It took a while for the creepy feeling to go away.

My family and I had come back from church Sunday afternoon to the front door being kicked in. Immediately my mouth went dry. My anxiety kicked in.

I could see the mark the person’s foot left on our white front door.

Everyone checked their room for any missing items. The TVs were still there. My iPod was still on my bed. I headed to my mother’s room and I immediately saw her eyes filled with sadness. They had stolen her gold jewelry.

That’s all they took.

We reported the break-in to the police, but there wasn’t much they could do about the gold pieces. I knew my mother was upset, not because of the gold itself, but because each piece had sentimental value.

The police officer had informed my parents that many break-ins have been reported within the past week and only gold was being taken. I thought it would be the police’s job to warn neighborhoods of these type of things. A flier would have been nice.

In this case, I guess I was wrong.

Maybe then my mother would have kept her jewelry in a more secure place. Although I don’t think a person should have to worry about taking off a pair of gold earrings and leaving them on the nightstand in their own home. I lived in a good neighborhood with good people who lent each other a hand or gave a cup of sugar when needed. This incident changed the way my neighbors interacted with one another.

Having my home broken into was a violation of my security, and there wasn’t anything I could do to go back in time to make sure my mother’s gold was safe.

I thought it would’ve been safe, and I’m sure my mother did too.

It was a weird feeling to process. A stranger forced their way into my home, my safe place. If someone was successful in breaking into my home, then another person could do the same.

My father fixed the front and back doors to be more secure. Security systems are expensive, and we are not able to fit them in our tight budget, so our only choice was to make sure the doors were locked when the house was empty or at night — even though this robbery took place during the day.

My mother claims whoever broke in had to be watching to see what time we would leave and also had to know she owned gold jewelry. It was the perfect day too. Most of my neighbors aren’t home on Sundays. Even then, my mother asked around if they had seen anything suspicious. As expected, no one was home around the time we were gone.

I had to get over suspecting my neighbors watching us, waiting for our home to be empty just so they could come in and take whatever they want. The thoughts left my mind as I had no other choice but to continue my everyday routine.

I’m grateful that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I do think police need to step up their game and inform people of the rise of criminal activity in their neighborhoods. Burglars not only steal TVs, money, or gold, but they take the inhabitant’s sense of security.

Daisy Reyes-Guzman is a mass communication freshman.