One day last December I came home from work early to find a total stranger coming out my back door carrying my property.

My house has been robbed three times in the last 10 years and now I finally caught this guy.

I was able to get his license number and he was later arrested.

After finding out his name, I have very good reason to believe he was involved in all three burglaries.

The first letter I got from Waupaca Victim/Witness stated that if I don’t show up in court, that shows I don’t care what the court does with him.

I do care what the court does with him but my employer will not allow time off to attend court hearings so I have had to use vacation time to attend 10 court hearings.

A check with the Circuit Court Access shows this guy has been in plenty of trouble over the last 10 years and has 10 fines that have gone unpaid.

I asked the prosecuting attorney why wasn’t this guy ever locked up for not paying any of these fines? I was told, “We don’t like to punish people because they don’t have any money.”

I’m sure this information will come in handy to people who get fines in the future!

This guy has been charged with other theft-type offenses involving other people and at the last hearing in a plea deal all the charges in my burglary had been dismissed.

Did I hear that right? Dismissed?

In the next few seconds I thought about the shock of meeting this guy coming out my back door.

I thought about how I could have been seriously injured in the incident that happened in my driveway involving his truck as he made his getaway.

I thought about the loss of the use of my property for the last year because it is evidence and was sent to Madison where it remains today.

I thought about the robbery in 2009 when I came home to find my then 13-year-old dog in the corner behind the couch, shaking uncontrollably and a ziplock bag full of quarters was taken off my desk.

I thought about the 10 days of vacation that I wasted hoping my presence in the courtroom would sway the judge from what seems to be Waupaca County’s “Spank Him and Cut Him Loose” policy.

That’s what went through my head in the seconds after I heard “dismissed”. He got away with it again.

I guess that’s why they call us victims.

Sentencing has been set for Jan. 18. We’ll have to wait until then to see if there’s any justice in Waupaca County.