Our car was broken into last night.
Actually, broken into isn’t quite the phrase. Nothing was broken. It seems that someone forgot to lock the car door – an extremely rare event with me, Queen of the Double-Checked Locks residing at this home – and on that particular night it just so happens that someone was walking through the neighborhood checking to make sure everyone locked their car doors.
Yeah, whatever. I don’t think the odds of it happening were really all that low.
Truth is, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is walking through our neighborhood double checking door locks every single night. You’d think we lived in the wild west, and not a middle-class suburban subdivision. But this is becoming a way of life around here.
When we first moved here (we were the second completed house on our block), our car was broken into in that literal-smashed-window kind of way. Sort of a welcome to the neighborhood, if you will. We began leaving the front lights on all night to dissuade nocturnal visitors.
Then in 2006, just days before I went to my first Blogher conference, we came home late one afternoon to find our living room window smashed, our entire home rifled through, and everything of value gone. At that point we installed a security system and took extra care to keep everything under lock and key.
And now another car was looted. I’ll be the first to admit that an unlocked car is just asking for someone to open the door, but in the hundreds of days our cars have sat in our driveway, only one night (to my knowledge) has the door been unlocked.
Thankfully, Aaron had recently cleaned the car (read: removed a lot of junk), so there was little of value to be found. Some spare change and a dead cell phone from 4 years ago is all they took we think. And extra thankfully, Aaron’s iPod and wallet were not in the car. He occasionally forgets them, although I think this served as another wake up to check all locks and remove all valuables before exiting the vehicle. (See? I told you I was the Queen of double-checking locks.)
And while I am grateful little was taken, I’m again left feeling angry. Three thefts in four years. The people who do this give me little hope in mankind. Even though I know of so many good people who go out of their way to help others, I’m left to dwell on those who choose to steal from anyone they can, taking away what others have earned instead of earning it themselves.
But beyond the physical items, the greatest thing stolen was my own feeling of security. I’m left wondering if there is anywhere one can truly be safe anymore? I hate feeling like I can’t hold tight enough to everything that matters to me because there are people waiting in the shadows to rip it all away the first moment I loosen my grip.
Call me a Pollyanna if you must, but why can’t everyone just be good to each other?
(And now I must go double check all of the locks on the doors before going to bed.)
That sucks! I’ve been lucky in the places I’ve lived, I think.
I’m sorry, Christina. The loss of stuff is one thing, but the loss of peace of mind is something else. I am the Queen of Locks, which my DH laughs at. Coming from the city, he doesn’t understand why I still lock everything if we live in the “country”.
I’m so sorry, Christina. That’s got to be so scary.
(Kristen – Motherhood Uncensored)
I understand where you’re coming from. I live in a place considered “the rough side of town”. Two years after we moved here our door was busted in and our house looted – on my birthday none the less. My car has been dinged (we have on street parking) 4 times by a drunk driver, finally caught the moron, was one of my neighbors sons who was so drunk he denied he did it even when my husband saw him do it. We’ve lived here seven years now and what I’ve chosed to focus on is not the isolated bad incidences, but all the good people who live here too, just trying to make a go of it. There are more of us than there are of the “bad element”. Unfortunately, the “bad element” gets more press. Hang in there.
That is so wrong. That just sucks! So sorry to hear that. We keep our car in the garage every night for that very reason because there’s people roaming through our neighborhood doing the same thing, too.
This kind of thing makes me angry too. Stealing has to be the absolute worst offense ever and I can’t stand the people who do it. I can’t even put my outgoing mail in our own mailbox anymore because apparently someone is rifling through our mail looking for credit card information and social security numbers. Nice.
I know what you mean. Even when they take nothing of value, it leaves you feeling vulnerable and dirty. At our old house, my truck was unlocked. Someone stole a bunch of CDs, but left cash, clothing, and the car seat (items I would think would bring in more revenue). I felt so guilty for leaving it unlocked, but the police told me that leaving something unlocked is NOT an invitation to steal things. He said it doesn’t make it your fault for forgetting to lock something. That made me feel better.
But still, it sucks for you. Hope this is the last time you have this problem.
Just a few days ago, there were 40 cars, reported to have been broken into. In our small town that was a BIG deal. Fortunately, they caught the people who apparently, left foot prints leading back to their house (who knew snow was a good thing?) I agree, though, beyond personal belongings, I think most of what people loose is their sense of security…the one thing they should have in their own house (or car) atleast.
Echoing what Avitable already said, that does suck. Is that cell phone going to work at all? If not, you can get some satisfaction from that anyway.
Years ago (like, late 70’s) my mom’s car was broken into and a shopping bag taken … but the only thing in it was maxipads.
Since back then we figured only male humans did the stealing-from-cars thing, she got a kick out of imagining the guy’s face when he opened the bag and saw… Kotex! I think it helped her get over the fear factor.
Hello! Poppin’ in from The Ultimate Blog Party…all the way from Queensland, Australia! G’Day! I hope you have time to visit my party soon.
I’m giving away Pink Champagne Shower Syrup from Jaqua Beauty…stop on over and enter! Ends April 8. Open to USA.
Ta!
I want to invite you to the Mommie Daze Virtual Baby Shower that I am hosting May 15 to June 8. This is an international even and there are prizes! Stop by my blog for all the details.