Sympathy for the Vandal
April 9th, 2008
It’s either the suddenly warm temperatures or this upper respiratory nonsense I’m currently dealing with, but I cannot seem to get to sleep right now. In keeping with the time of day I figured I’d talk about something that happened to me a few weeks ago during a similar time of day.
I stayed late at work two weeks ago to ensure a deployment got out the door, and when I finally left the office in the early hours of the morning I noticed, off in the distance of the parking lot, the blinking lights of a car. I thought: Man, someone’s broken down over there, and this late? Poor them, maybe I can help. As I approached closer I noticed there was something wrong- the car was suspiciously close to where I’d parked.
Sure enough, I arrive and my blinkers are on, my doors unlocked, and my dashboard was in shambles- someone had broken into my car and attempted (unsuccessfully) to make off with my radio. What they did make off with was my skating backpack, including my set of K2 90’s, all my pads, repair gear and spare bearings- all well used, and likely with little resale value.
I consider myself lucky. I have insurance, there was still someone at work who could give me a jump, the theft didn’t cause any damage I couldn’t afford to repair, and my insurance was kind enough to get me a rental in the interim ( Note to self: I’m not a fan of the Ford Focus ). I didn’t realize the theft of the skates until the claim had already been filed though, so I will have to replace them on my own.
Even so, the entire ordeal has left my rose colored glasses a little cracked. So far I’ve been sheltered from things like this: I’ve never been mugged, robbed, have had my privacy violated in any way, and I got off relatively easy given the circumstances. And yet I’m starting to think… how often does this happen to others? What damage can one person do to so many different lives simply to get… what, a thrill? A payout? An old smelly set of used skates? And what in the world happened to that poor person to seek satisfaction by harming others?
A sad state of affairs.
ach du meine guete, aber frage ulrike die ist expertin im beklaut werden…
I’m pretty sure that theft is the main thrust behind Columbus making any kind of national rankings in terms of crime. The rates for theft/burglary are around twice the national average. Still, that sucks.
Oregon, it turns out, really is a huge meth state, and we have a lot of property crime that seems to come from that. I have had a few brushes with crime, but ever so long ago, and we have been quite unconcerned as a family about that sort of thing.
We have a carport here, and one morning, after failing to lock the car–the old Volvo with a radio we’d installed ourselves–we found the car open and the dash pried out, but the would-be thief had not understood how Lee had installed the radio and had failed to uninstall it. He did make off with the change that I tossed in the side pocket.
Lee put the dashboard back together, we fussed about it a bit, and then one day, within a few weeks, forgot to lock the car again. Next morning: dash pulled & no radio. The thief had apparently consulted with someone who knew the business a bit better. Crap.
We didn’t replace that radio, and now have a new car with a factory-installed job, which I think is less desirable for that market–at least, I hope so.
Oh, I think we also forgot to lock the garage a time or two, also, and one of the bikes turned up missing. But it was one of the kids’ bikes, and they never remember if they left a bike at a friends’ house…but we have had various bicycles stolen over the years. Hasn’t everyone? In fact, Lee has had to replace the quick-release nuts on our seats with regular nuts. Devon and I have both had seats stolen while we were doing our business about town–first him, and later, me. When I got home after losing my seat and I told him about it, he smirked at me and said “it’s a bitch ridin’ home, isn’t it?”