The excitement of the day’s game wore off as they stepped through their front door. She tried to walk into the living room, but found herself kicking and stepping on all their belongings. Her mom bent over to pick up the empty orange juice bottle while the tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. She looked around the house with an empty feeling in her stomach. The tears splattered onto the floor to join what was left of everything they owned.
In 2003, Shayla Kinnel, now a junior, got home from a softball tournament to find that all their valuables had been stolen while they’d been out.
“I didn’t know how to react. All our things were gone, but it felt like a chunk of me was gone with it,” Kinnel said.
Anything and everything of value, and a few everyday household items had been taken from their home in Mesquite. This included the TV’s, jewelry, clothes, game systems, and even some baby bottles.
“It looked like a tornado had blown through there,” Kinnel said.
Whoever had been in their house hadn’t bothered to pick up after themselves. Instead, they took what they wanted and left the rest laying on the floor. Everybody in the house was stressed and didn’t know where to go from there.
“I was devastated. Trying to raise my children and then having virtually everything taken from us was very hard,” Jackie Kinnel said.
Her husband, Daniel, was in Korea fighting at war oblivious to what was going on back at home. So now not only were they worried about him, but the safety of their house and family, as well
“Once the shock finally wore off, I realized that we really needed to get out of there,” Jackie Kinnel said.
So for a few days, Kinnel and her family stayed with their aunt. Just until her mom decided what their next move would be.
“I really just wanted a place to call home. A place where I finally wouldn’t have to worry about something happening, where we could be worry free,” Kinnel said.
When their father returned home, he decided that they would move into Mansfield, but he would continue to work as a teacher at Mesquite High School. The family stayed in a little trailer while they made the floor plan of their house and then built it. Today, the Kinnel’s still live in that same home and there haven’t been any more incidents.
“I was just thinking ‘why us’. Our house was the only house they went to,” Kinnel said. “I guess the whole experience just made me learn to look on the bright side, and realize that there will always be better things in store for us when something goes wrong.”
