'Married to Medicine' Star Anila Sajja Opens Up About Home Burglary
TODAY spoke to ‘Married to Medicine’ star Anila Sajja about her home burglary that has been chronicled on Season Nine of the show. On Sunday, December 19, 2021, the star discovered that her Milton, Georgia home had been broken into upon returning home after a family shopping trip with her husband Dr. Kiran Sajja and children, Aryana and Avir Sajja.
TODAY reached out to the Milton, Georgia Police Department, who said that the case is active and ongoing. Sajja provided details about experience, and how she's moving forward, below.
It was a lazy Sunday.
Around 4 p.m., we left the house as we decided out of the blue to finish up our Christmas shopping. My husband, Kiran, my kids and I went to Best Buy, got some gifts for the kids, and went to dinner.
Nobody knew where we were. I didn’t put it on social media.
We came home around 8:30 or 9 and parked in our driveway. Me and Aryana went upstairs. It was a Sunday night, so we were getting her ready for bed. Right away, my daughter noticed that our prayer door was open. Then, she looked straight ahead and noticed the ironing board was flipped over. When I saw the prayer door open, I was just like, “Oh, maybe my younger son went in there playing around,” but when I saw the ironing board tipped over, I was like, “Oh, now that’s weird.”
I looked to my left. In my blogger room, every cabinet door was open, and the desk drawers were open. I screamed for Kiran because Kiran was downstairs getting stuff out of the car. He came up and walked into the master bedroom. He told me to stay where I was, but I had to follow him because I was like, “I just don’t want to be alone.”
We saw our nightstand doors were open, and Kiran dialed 911. The cops asked, “Do you know if they’re still in the house?” We had no idea if they were still there. They said, “Go downstairs, get back in your car, pull out into your driveway and wait for us.”
Five to ten minutes later, the cops showed up with loaded guns. Three or four of them walked throughout the home, checked every door, every closet to make sure they weren’t not there. They walked us back in and we walked through the entire home to see the rooms they ransacked.
It almost looked like a movie scene. It was the scariest thing to see every cabinet door open and things just everywhere. I went to the ground and started crying because I was just devastated. It’s not about my possessions being gone, but it’s the fact that these people walked in my house.
It was one of the scariest moments of my life. It was very sad. It was devastating. It was traumatizing.
Every piece of jewelry that I own was gone, including my wedding ring. Bags were taken, Indian jewelry handed down from generation to generation that I can never replace were gone. When I think about it, I honestly want to cry. Kiran always tells me, “At least we’re safe, and we weren’t home. It could have been a lot worse.” The pieces were invaluable.
I felt super violated by the fact that they opened my nightstand drawer. That’s right next to where I lay my head at night.
I felt like the house wasn’t my house anymore. My kids were so scared that night. None of us could sleep. I couldn’t even step foot in my closet anymore because I felt like it wasn’t my house anymore. So, the next day, I went to Savannah to be with my parents, and I was there for two weeks. I just felt safer being with my parents and just being around family at that time.
When I went back to the house, it wasn’t really about moving forward, it was about our new reality.
I couldn’t just keep running away from it. We had to start over again. Do I feel the warmth in my home? No. I’m still scared every night our camera alarm goes off. It’s on sensitive mode, so all through the night it goes off, even if a bug flies in front of it. I’m constantly checking it.
We had to give some normalcy to our kids’ lives. That was the hardest part because I had to be a stronger person. I had to be the mother who said “It’s not going to happen again. We’re fine.”
Out of the experience, I wanted to teach my kids that people can take away all of our possessions, but we’re a family, we love each other and we have to be there for each other. We have to move past this, be strong and move forward.
I don’t think I’ve had a really good night of sleep since. I still don’t feel fully safe, but I have to let go and move forward. I think that’s the hardest part.
You never want this to ever happen to anyone. Walking through my home, you can’t ever remove the stain of the footprints of the robbers that came through our house. No matter how many times you clean the floor, those stains will always be there.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
