This morning was a triumph of errand running. I'd had my Honda Insight at the car shop for a couple of days getting the main hybrid battery pack replaced at enormous expense. I made it to the rental car place right as they opened at 7:30 a.m., dropped off their car, got a ride to the dealer, picked up my car, stopped for coffee and a quick breakfast, and made it to my eye doctor appointment by 9.
I had a 10 o'clock meeting at work and I got to my parking garage a few minutes before that. It was pretty full, so I took an uncharacteristic parking spot and hurried in.
Later, a friend called to ask if I wanted to go to lunch. I went to my car a little before noon and immediately opened the hatch to grab a little gift for her. I saw that one of the gift packs I had was unwrapped and thought that was very odd. Surely the car shop guys hadn't opened one?
I didn't get clued in until I opened the driver side door and found one of my plastic console panels lying on the seat. I'd been hearing pieces of the broken glass from the passenger window falling, but it took several long moments for me to put it all together in my head. Someone had broken into my car, taken out my stereo, stolen my nice radar detector from the glove box and generally made a big old mess.
After calling to cancel lunch, I went back to my desk and filed a police report over the phone. It turned out that my car was one of many that had been broken into, so eventually I talked to the police in person, but they wouldn't have come out for just one break-in.
Then I called my insurance company and got that ball rolling. I still haven't heard back with a claim number, but I went ahead and got Safelite Auto Glass to order a new window for me and scheduled an appointment to have it installed tomorrow afternoon.
Big props to Safelite, by the way. They invited me to drive to one of their locations so they could vacuum up the glass and seal the window hole while I waited for the installation. I also appreciated that their appointment confirmation e-mail for the mobile service includes the name and photo of the tech that will be coming to do the work.
I started out angry and upset at first, so I blew off steam via my usual social media accounts until I felt better.
I went back out to my car and noted that my garage door openers were still there (whew!); he hadn't found my GPS; the console panel had actually been removed with a screwdriver, so the damage to the car was limited to the window; and for some reason the guy had torn off a couple of the paper towels I carry in the car for my animal rescue volunteering. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that he'd spilled a bottle of water I'd had in the car.
Also not stolen:
- My glasses, which I'd left in the car after my eye doctor appointment
- A CD of The Yes Album (although now that I've looked on Amazon and seen that it's only worth 50¢, I guess I can see why)
- The rest of my Christmas gift packs (they're all pretty girly and I think he only opened the one to get some of the candy)
- The book I was reading (you can see it in the photo)
So that's good.
I've already discovered that the most annoying thing about not having a car stereo is that it means I also don't have a clock in my car. I'm dealing with the lack of music by singing every Christmas song I can think of, which also has the effect of cheering me up somewhat.
It's all a collossal annoyance, but minor in the grand scheme of things. As I noted in my "acceptance phase" post on Facebook, I guess crack money has to come from somewhere.
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