Yeah, I had about 10k basketball cards and probably 15k shells from all over the world, including some bloody rare ones. Had an entire room for the cream of my shell collection, and some of the bigger ones scattered through the house. Pretty sure the fire was deliberately lit by the little A-holes who lived/stayed over the back fence. The kids who lived there, their father lived in Perth for work, and their mum was too much of a soft touch, let them get away with anything: loud parties 3-5 nights a week till early morning, open drug use, they used to through their rubbish & alcohol bottles over my fence and other neighbours. Eventually 1 of the neighbours went to see the mum a few days before it happened, told her the kids could either shape up or ship out, or they'd involve the police, which was met with "we'll burn your fucking house down, you old bastard!" shouted over the fence after they'd returned home. Earlier the day of the fire, drop-kicks from that house were seen on security camera trying to force their way into an elderly neighbours house, then a couple of hours later my house went up. The little bastard who was always having the parties legged it to Perth while I was still sorting shit out, his mates all went to ground, and it all got put down to an "electronic fault". Insurance covered most things, EVENTUALLY, but it's the stuff u can't replace like photos, memorabilia, collectables that hurt the most... When it first happened I just wanted to drive off the boat ramp with the windows open, but I've got a young fella I needed to take care of. Almost 8 years to the day now. Still a lot of anger, but all you can do is move on.
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