This story comes from Underwriting as a warning to anyone going on vacation. A couple planned an extended vacation. They stopped their mail service, made sure their paper delivery was on hold, locked their home up tight and headed out for a four week vacation. When the couple returned they discovered they had been robbed. The thieves went through everything and left a huge mess. It was horrible.

The owners quickly realized the things missing seemed odd. The thieves stole their computer hard drive and some important financial paperwork. It appeared they meticulously went through every piece of paper, file and drawer. Turns out they did!

The thieves collected all the financial information they could. They took the hard drives and other identifying documents so they could create fake I.D.'s in the name of the real owners. Next the thieves drained every account the owners had: their bank accounts, money market accounts and 401k accounts.

They combed through the information they stole to identify where the owners had these accounts, what the account numbers were and any passwords for these accounts. They went to branch offices of the financial institutions and withdrew all the funds in the accounts.

The owners called the police to report the crime. The police filed the report and told the owner's they estimated the thieves spent at least two full days in their home combing through their records. The owners retained an attorney to assist them in trying to recoup the stolen funds.