Wow, so I had a similiar-ish experience. Also lived in NY 99-01, and I did work in the WTC for a few sporadic temp gigs. Left NY in May '01, it hit home in the same way you felt I imagine, what if, etc. I had a couple of weeks of nightmares, probably becuse I did have some feeling of what it must have been like, I absolutely hated the towers and felt incredibly claustrophobic at both my jobs as they were windowless reception/security gigs. I wasn't at either one long enough to get to know anyone closely but I did obsess about whether the people in the floor I was on made it out, it was a dicey one as it was in the low 80s I think tower one. The other job wasn't as high up. A lot of my friends were still in the city but luckily everyone was ok. It's hard to fathom it has been 20 years. Highly recommend The Looming Tower if you haven't seen it.

Also it's not funny you got robbed but that is so NY. My Mom purposefully left a papasan chair tied to her car in the LES (this was earlier, in '95), hoping someone would steal it but no one did lol.