LAST MONTH photographer Keith Angelitis finally finished rehabilitating his semi-detached rowhouse in a rough section of Fishtown. It had taken him four years to make over the pigeon- and squirrel-infested property in the 2400 block of Frankford Avenue, but it finally housed a first-floor photography studio, an art gallery and an office and, on the second floor, a Pilates studio for his girlfriend's business. The third floor had been transformed into a private living space for the two of them.

For a free spirit such as Angelitis, completing renovations on the roughly 5,000 square feet of space was the culmination of a dream. To celebrate, he held a grand opening, which also was the first of what he hoped would be a long string of first-Friday celebrations at the new Angel Studios. More than 100 people showed up and he even sold two of his photographs and a piece of art he was exhibiting in the gallery space.

Then, he and his girlfriend left on a weeklong trip to the Poconos. When the couple returned home, they found their front door standing wide open. A locked gun cabinet containing four rifles and a handgun he'd inherited from his father had been stolen, he said, along with two computers, two guitars, a camera lens, an iPod, a sizable amount of cash, other equipment and even a box of wine. Burglars had climbed into a second-floor window and somehow gotten past a security gate.

"I can see my dad rolling over in his grave because some street punk has his handgun," Angelitis told me. "At first, I was like, 'Let's move. Let's just go back up in the mountains and never come back.' But if I do that, the bad guys win.

"The amount of work that went in here for two people to do, to walk away from it is just senseless," added Angelitis, who grew up in Juniata Park. "I love this house. Since I gutted it and put it all back together again . . . this is my house. It's not like I went and bought a house with a pink ribbon around it."

But it's hard to get over the experience of being burglarized. Angelitis has been visualizing the thieves opening the cabinet, discovering not only the guns but the $9,000 in insurance money he'd hidden inside. He even pictures them drinking his wine.

"My eyes are open," Angelitis said. "I used to naively think I had a protective bubble of goodness around myself. I thought the whole karma thing would kind of take care of me, but I guess not.

"I guess it was awfully naive of us to think that we were immune."

This isn't the end of Angelitis' story. On Friday, he's hosting his second first- Friday open house at Angel Studios.

"Sometimes, I don't know if I'm hearing fireworks or gunshots. It depends on which direction you go," he said of his neighborhood. "But it's changing. It's changing a lot."

And Angelitis is part of the change.

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