Stupidheads

On the morning of October 1st, we were broken into. The thief(s) ripped off the the screen to one of the windows, and probably using a broom handle, managed to take a reusable grocery bag. The bag contained the personal items and wallets of our guest from Mexico (Deni) and her friend. The thief(s) must have seen the items on the couch or had been watching the house. Besides the difficulty of the credit cards, Deni's U.S. visa was in the wallet. We actually found the personal items and bag a few houses down, but the wallets are gone. Deni only has a 3 hour layover in Los Angeles on her way to Mexico, and the U.S. Immigration require her to have a visa for this time. This wasn't a problem because her visa was actually a 10 year travel visa. She contacted the U.S. consulate in Australia, and was informed they could not replace it and she needed to completely reapply for a new visa. This is all pretty ridiculous, so she is scrambling trying to get a visa for 3 hours. We've been to LAX, they should be paying her to spend three hours in that airport. Needless to say, there are some people who are helpful and sympathetic, others are bureaucratic and authoritarian. We hope it all works out for her, and are pretty upset with our government.