TL;DR, as always, NEVER INVEST MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE.
Why do I have to keep repeating that every so often.
+1 I guess people will only realize this once they actually get in trouble.
Remember:
Stupid people learn from their mistakes. Smart people learn from other people's mistakes.Oh and regardless of whether Mt.Gox is trustworthy or not (I think they are), you should simply NOT put large amounts of money (either in USD or BTC) on a website. This is probably not related to TS's problem but I thought I'd mention it anyway. Put money in, buy bitcoins, transfer bitcoins to your wallet.
Now it's safe.