A (Romanian?) Gang of Thieves

One step forward, two steps back. And all because of a gang of thieves.
A Romanian gang, according to the carabinieri paramilitary police who came to my house afterwards.
Got burgled on my side of the hill on Friday night, just before dawn, while I was asleep by myself in the house. The day I was leaving to come back to London.
Horrible. And right when I was starting to feel at home there.
The carabinieri think three or four guys, probably Romanians (it was striking they just speculated about their nationality like that. Isn't that racial profiling?) came quickly into my house by breaking a lock on the front terrace door. They stole my new Mac, my digital camera and a couple hundred Euros and pounds.
It wasn't so much what I lost, even though I cried plenty over the pictures I had in both my computer and my camera, pictures of my sons mostly. And I miss my lap-top, i.e. lifeline to the outside world, hugely (is that pathetic?).
What was really hard to take, though, was the fact that a gang of men broke into my house while I was there alone in my nightgown in bed in the next room (I wasn't sleeping upstairs in our room, like I normally do, because it was too hot).
The carabinieri said it was much better that I didn't wake up. I heard Nero barking at some point, but just turned over and went back to sleep. He's always barking -- a classic case of a crying wolf you don't heed.
A neighbor down my hill said that last year, he surprised four hooded guys -- one a Romanian he thought he recognized from the town -- in his house one night when he came home just before midnight. They had a gun, he said, although it could have been a toy. They fled when he arrived.
Robberies are pretty commonplace in Italy. Almost everyone has their story.
After I discovered the burglary in the morning, I went shaken, crying to see my next door neighbor, an elderly Italian man, who's also my caretaker. He kept saying it must've been someone who knew my movements, since it happened the day I was leaving. I thought so too, although the thought terrified me.
The carabinieri insisted it almost certainly wasn't. Two other local villas were also burgled that night, they said. The robbers' modus operandi was typical of how they do it. Although they took my lap-top, they removed the wireless Internet key, which can be used to trace the computer. They took all my cash, but thankfully left my wallet and passport, which is what they do, the carabinieri said. A quick little job. Over in less than five minutes.
It could've been so much worse, I know. I could've been hurt. I could've been traumatized by the sight of four hooded men in my living room, not an image easily discarded. I could've lost my entire wallet, with all my cards and I.Ds, which is a huge hassle.
And it was actually good that I was leaving that day, so I didn't have to spend the night there alone right afterwards. I was with my husband in our bed here in London instead. I'm grateful for that.
And I'm going to be here at least a couple weeks now, so time will ease the shock of the robbery.
But I am planning on going back alone, before my husband can take more vacation. And I was certainly planning to be there alone for extended periods of time.
Hopefully, a gang of thieves won't also rob me of the progress I've made.