The long version of the story.

I think I already wrote about how stressful Thursday 14th March was. So on Friday 15th, I got up in the morning, floated around on the internet for a while, then left for my appointment with my key worker. I don't remember much of that appointment. I don't recall which room it was in, or if I used the whiteboard, or anything. It's just gone.

I got home around 4:30pm. My flatmate June, was sitting outside drinking with a friend. I did normal stuff, cooked dinner, watched TV. Got sick of them so went into my room, but saw them ironing their hair with my clothes iron on my way past. Asked them not to, they finished what they were doing then left. I was glad. Then I decided to charge my iPod.

It wasn't where I had left it. Being as I have a cat, I checked nearby to see if it had been knocked off. I checked behind things, I checked under things, I checked everywhere. I started to panic, in spite of the quetiapine I had taken earlier. I did what I'm supposed to do when things get out of control. I called the crisis team/mental health line people. I also texted Leisa. The lady on the phone was absolutely useless, she sounded like she didn't believe me and she wanted me to do a more thorough check. I eventually managed to get through to her that I needed the actual crisis team to contact me, and she said she would get them to call me and follow up. In the mean time, Leisa had replied and told me to report the matter to the police. I googled the number for the Manukau Police Station (who have after hours) and the lady who answered the phone put me through to the crime reporting line. I reported the theft, said I believed that June had stolen it, and gave them the serial number. The lady on the crime reporting line was nice and calm and listened to me, and she believed me. SHE didn't tell me to double check.

In between phone calls, I smashed some cups and bowls and stuff against the fence. I was incredibly angry and frustrated and I felt powerless. Smashing things felt good. I didn't smash anything important, just stuff that was superfluous anyway.

I continued to text Leisa, she said she would organise to have either myself or June out in the morning. (Saturday morning.) I took another quetiapine and was in bed when the crisis team finally rang me. I explained what had happened, and they basically said ok.

Saturday morning I was awoken to my phone ringing. It was Leisa, telling me that she had organised for me to go into a motel as a temporary place until things got sorted out, and maybe temporary accomodation after that if they couldn't shift June. She gave me the option of spending the morning out of the house with her co-workers and I accepted. (Leisa technically isn't supposed to do any work on weekends.) So I spent the morning with them, and early in the afternoon I was checked into a motel in Papakura. At some point I texted Halcyon and asked her to leave a note in Arrivals & Departures, because I didn't know how long I would be away for.

Sunday I started drinking coffee. I don't even know why, but it tastes nice now so that's ok.

Monday afternoon Leisa came over, and we discussed stuff and visited my place so I could make sure Linny had food. Leisa told me that June was being moved out the next day, and that she would bring me back home once June was gone. Apparently when they'd met with the property manager, June's CLS worker had sent that it was simple: I hadn't done anything wrong, so it was June that had to move. Praise the Lord.

Wednesday I did my shopping and all that. In the evening when I was sitting outside having a smoke, I thought I could hear my music (the music on my iPod) playing from one of my neighbours (Sanele) whilst he was sitting outside. I didn't say anything because it was late at night, and yeah.

Thursday I had art group in the morning. Leisa was early because she had a really hectic morning to deal with, resultantly when she knocked on the door I wasn't quite ready, and I RAN through the house in socks, lost traction cornering between the kitchen and the lounge, and crashed to the ground. Luckily I wasn't hurt and we started the day laughing.

After art group myself and Leisa hung out and chatted for a while, easily a couple of hours because it was around 3:00 - 3:30pm by the time she left.

And then life got interesting.

I had just got inside (I'd been smoking) when my phone rang, and it was Leisa. She was asking what colour the headphones of my iPod were (I told her the standard white ones) as she had just seen Sanele walking up the driveway with white headphones in his ears. So she turned around and came back, and she asked Sanele to show her what he was listening to. He refused. Once she got back to the top of the driveway and I was there, she asked him again. She said that my iPod had been stolen and we wanted to check to make sure it wasn't my one. So he pulled it out of his pocket and it was definitely mine. My iPod has a very distinctive case on it, so it was easy to tell. She told him he could either hand it over or she would call the police. He refused to hand it over, maintaining it was his and that he got it from his brother. (We had the serial number and knew if we could have a look we could easily prove it was mine.) So Leisa called the police. She explained the situation and we followed him down the driveway. Unfortunately Leisa was told not to follow him, so we lost him, and the police didn't catch up with him that evening, but they said they would send somebody to follow up.

We drove around for a while, I think it was 6:00pm by the time Leisa left to go home. Poor woman, she had to spend a whole day with me basically

She called me in the evening of Thursday to check I was ok.

Friday morning, approximately 8:00am, I get a call from Leisa saying the police are on their way to take a statement etc. I jumped out of bed, got dressed, made a coffee, and then sat outside smoking and drinking my coffee.

Sanele walked past from the direction of the carport and started talking to me. I texted Leisa to let her know and she rang me. I don't feel like typing what he said, but basically he was trying to intimidate me into believing that the iPod was genuinely his and that I was unwell to think it wasn't.

Leisa came over for two reasons - she needed to be there when the police arrived, and I was quite shaken from that encounter.

The police came, we gave them all the details, and the police left again.

I went with Leisa as opposed to remaining at home alone, and we took Angela to WINZ (I stayed outside and smoked whilst they did their thing), took Angela home, then as Leisa was about to drop me off, we saw Sanele AGAIN, this time sitting right outside his place listening to my iPod.

Leisa made me call 111. I was freaking out because I'd never done it before, but that was what the policemen we had seen on Friday morning told us to do. So I did it.

A few minutes later, the police turned up. Sanele had tried to hide it in his house, but they found it, and a quick check of the serial number proved it was mine. Apparently Sanele said June had given it to him, which is perfectly possible. He was arrested. We decided to follow through with charging him because he's getting away with theiving stuff too often.

I cleaned my iPod, did a boxing class, and met Debbie.
And got no sleep on Friday night.

Unfortunately Sanele is now home (I've seen him once or twice) and is back to stealing butts from my jar where I put them. So I don't feel entirely comfortable but oh well.

And that's the whole story. My iPod got stolen, I got it back, my neighbour was arrested, I am still exhausted.