Yesterday, my friend Holli and I returned to our scheduled daily exercise at the new Beaumont Hike and Bike trail. I don't know that I've raved about the trail, but it's 3.5 miles of paved trail - which is a nice contrast to the sidewalk-less Beaumont streets.
When I pulled up, I jumped out, took my car key off the ring, tied it to my shoe, and then put my purse into the trunk, the safest place in the car.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, I returned to find my trunk wide open, my purse missing, and my driver's side window smashed with a rock. I just stared at it - NOTHING like this had ever happened to me before. And, as I looked around the parking lot at the ten other newer, more expensive cars they could have broken into, I wondered why on earth they had picked mine.
The conclusion I came to was that they had been watching me the entire time, which is how they knew to go straight for the trunk. They were apparently parked in the parking lot, waiting for someone to show major signs of stupidity....and there I was to oblige. It was like I was wearing a HUGE sign on my forehead that said, "LOOK! I'M PUTTING MY PURSE RIGHT HERE! RIGHT HERE! PLEASE STEAL IT!"
Naturally, since I was in a hurry, I took no time to look around, no time to take in my surroundings and therefore, proved my naivety, thinking that since I was in a relatively safe part of town, I didn't need to case the joint before leaving.
I lost everything - credit cards, driver license, social security card, passport (I know, I know! I shouldn't have had it in there to begin with), glasses, cell phone, camera, house key, mail key, work key, gym pass, and my beauty bag. I'm very annoyed.
Anyway, here are the things that I have learned from this experience:
1. Apparently no one stops to help people in distress anymore. At least ten people passed me sitting on my back bumper, crying. The only one who stopped was a heavily bearded man named Bender. Uh huh, Bender. At the beginning I was more scared of him than angry about my car.
2. While you are waiting for and entire hour for Beaumont's best and brightest to show up to file a report, you will get at least 23 mosquito bites - this is because they have cleverly built the walking path right around the outskirts of a swamp.
3. It takes 45 minutes to get someone from Bank of America on the phone to cancel your debit card. It only takes 30 for the new holder of the card to empty YOUR ENTIRE BANK ACCOUNT. Luckily, Bank of America replaced all of my funds, most of which have taken me an entire year and a half to squirrel away.
4. No one in this world does what's right anymore - don't parents still teach the "if it's not yours, don't touch it" rule?? The reason that I am the most angry is because it was MY STUFF in MY CAR. I've never thought my car was penetrable - apparently the windows are the only vulnerable point on The Tank. Excellent striking point. Does that mean that there are also no more places in this world where it's safe to park your car and leave it? Seems like it!
5. Replacing a side window costs $200. I have no insurance coverage for auto burglary.
6. I want to enact a new rule for felons. If they are going to steal something, they have to tell you what they plan to do with it. Leave me a note. Let me know if you are going to make prank calls to India on my cell phone. Tell me if you are going to sell my passport, driver license, and social security card to an illegal alien. If you're not going to use my glasses, could you at least let me know which dumpster you offloaded them in? That way I would know what I had to replace, what I needed to cancel, etc. See! Easier for everyone.
7. Not sleeping all night because you are worried to death about your identity makes you very tired. That's an obvious one.
8. It takes a lot of work (and is also very expensive) to start your identification life all over again. Down to the DPS for the driver license. Over to the bank to cancel your checks. To the post office to get your mail lock changed. To the mall to get a new cell phone - which, incidentally, worked out very well for Husband since I took his old phone and he was the one who got the new one. Oh, and by the way, just in case this ever happens to anyone else, you cannot cancel your social security card (you just have to replace it...after you've gotten your new picture ID in the mail in 2-6 weeks) and you have to do a butt-load of paperwork to report a missing passport.
9. It's creepy to know that someone has been watching you. They must have come to the bike trail planning to steal, knowing that walkers and bikers are away from their cars and out of earshot for extended periods of time. It's even more horrible because the biking path was one of the main reasons I had stopped hating Beaumont for the last three weeks or so - it made me happy to be able to exercise outside. And, even though I know that it's not likely to happen again, I'm going to have a really hard time going back there.
10. My greatest lamentation is losing the passport. I know it and everything else in my purse can be replaced, but my passport was one of my greatest treasures. I'm not going to lie when I say that I was proud to show it to people and have them comment on the number of stamps I had. It held a lot of great memories.
9 comments:
Don't worry - I got your back, sista. I alreay wrote all the councilmen and women in our area - as well as the mayor. And, I already wrote and turned in my column. We might not get your purse back but the least we can do is get some dang parking lights!!!
Sooooo soorry.
That sucks!! I'm sorry neff!
Yikes! And the passport! Here's to a speedy and secure recovery/reissuing of your paper identity..
I am so sorry you are going through all this because someone else can not respect the rights or property of another human being. I can empathize with your anger and frustration. 5 years ago I drove through the gates to the parking lot of my church (behind the church building, not even on or near the street), I went inside and two hours later came out and where was my car? I looked all over the parking lot thinking I had forgotten where I parked it. After the police came to take my report and everyone had gone home and there were no more cars in the parking lot, I asked the police man to please go look in the parking lot again, maybe I had forgotten to put it in park and it rolled to another spot. The parking lot is flat and there are no cars in the parking lot the policeman had to keep reminding me. You are stunned, speechless, shocked. You feel violated as if someone had casually ripped your heart out. I understand all the emotions you listed. Needless to say, 5 years later I still do not feel comfortable leaving my car in a parking lot. I mean, come on, it was a CHURCH parking lot --- is nothing sacred anymore??? My heart and my prayers are with you. I live in San Diego, California. My car was stolen out of the neighborhood I was born in -middleclass suburbia. My opinion - the only safe place is Heaven. That is why my eyes are on Jesus.
That really is one of the worst feelings ever. I'm sorry that you are having to go through that and I am so sad about your passport. Things like that can be so discouraging. You think that people generally good, but then something like that happens and it leaves you wondering. I'd love to read your friend's column. Good luck with everything, including the mosquito bites.
Hey, Sorry about that. I too hold on to my passport because it represents a lot of good memories for me. I got pickpocketed once when I worked for UNICEF in the Philippines. They stole my wallet. It had all my ID and everything. The only thing it didn't have was my cash. I had removed it previously. The sales lady was so shocked that I was able to pay still for my purchase which made me think that she was in cahoots with the other thieves.
Again, I'm sorry about the mosquito bites too. Here's something to watch if you're bored.
http://www.g4tv.com/ninjawarrior/index.html
Grasshopper-
You know what they say about karma. Maybe your boss and his patients got sick of you talking so much crap about them on your blog, they decided to give you a little payback. Who knows maybe right now the good Doctor is wearing your spectacles, eating some ice cream he bought with your money, laughing. I'm not saying you deserve to get your things stolen, I'm just indicating that the universe gives you back what you put into it, and with all your whining and sniveling, something like this was bound to happen. Maybe you should read "The Secret".
You know you're getting up there with the famous folks when you start getting negative feedback more from misunderstanding your humourous outlook of your experiences, especially from anonymous comment posters.
Dear annoymous,
I think you misunderstand what karma is. Karma would be you getting your purse, or valuables, stolen after posting an inconsiderate, rude, cowardly comment. That would be karma.
Maybe you should read the secret.
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