Commiserating
Back in 1998 when I was living in downtown Salt Lake City, in a pretty sketchy neighborhood, or I guess as sketchy as a neighborhood in Utah could possibly be (where people smoke cigarettes! and drink tea!), someone broke into my four-door Honda Accord and stole my state-of-the-art JVC cassette stereo. And I was hopping mad about it until I noticed that the thief had broken in through one of those small triangular windows in the backseat, making the clean-up and repair minimal. He could have smashed any of the four bigger windows, or even the windshield, but he didn't. He cared that much.
That is a thief making his mama proud.
I should have opened up comments on my last post (so I will on this one) because many of you have sent me stories of your own encounters with car thieves, and my God, they are too good to keep to myself. Like this one from Alyssa:
My friend and her boyfriend were driving across the country back to college with an entire carload of stuff when the car was stolen.
They were stranded in Arizona, but managed to get back to Chicago where they got a call that the car had been recovered.
There was almost nothing left of the carload of stuff, save for one thing - every last book.
So at least we can rest easy knowing that the thieves have our crap, but we can kick their asses on Jeopardy.
Shit. You've gotta believe something.
Jon and I heard recently that Utah has one of the largest rates of car stereo theft in the country, and we were sitting around trying to figure out why, what is it about Utah? And why car stereos? And the only thing we could come up with is that thieves in Utah are so inbred -- see: a history of half-brothers and sisters getting it on at the compound -- that they are too dumb to know how to steal anything of real value. LIKE THE ACTUAL CAR. And when I think about it that way it just makes Utah seem so cute.
You must have a dooce® Community account to leave a comment.
If you've already registered, login.
If this is your first time posting here, snag a free account.
Heather talks about public tantrums (from kids) on today's Momversation.
- RIP Louis Mortimer Armstrong: http://bit.ly/1R4tv6
- Hugs and kisses to you, too! RT: @Monkey_Tree: @dooce he probably committed suicide because he was tired of LISTENING TO YOU WHINE.
- Our fish just died. And I'm sitting here crying. And it wasn't even my fault!
301. MidgetViking said:
And here's the link to the story (No. 298) and links to who the bastards are. Oh, and the missing part of the threat is the word 'trashed' (i.e; as far as we're concerned you've trashed on of our fucking cars and we're gonna fucking get you). I'm full of admiration.
http://midgetviking.blogspot.com/2007/06/flashbacks-theyll-always-be-the...
302. RzDrms said:
annica: you left a *million dollar diamond necklace* dangling from your car's mirror?! seriously???
303. saliesas said:
I live in Syracuse, NY (not exactly the crime capital of the world) and a few years ago I had my car stolen 4 times in a year and a half. I tried to get real creative by having my dad put in a kill switch in the car and that didn't even work. It was stolen from every side of the city (good, bad and indifferent).
Every time it was stolen it was recovered, but me being a poor student didn't put theft on my insurance, so I had to pay the tow and storage fee ($150) each time.
Adding insult to serious injury - the last time it was stolen the thief got a parking ticket! With the stolen car. I then had to spend a Tuesday morning in Traffic Court fighting the ticket.
Needless to say - I sold the car shortly after. I very possibly didn't learn my lesson, though, because I don't lock my car doors anymore. I am living proof that if they want the car they will figure out how to take it.
304. bananie said:
it wasn't my car, because i didn't have a car.
i was at the beach with my friend. we were eighteenish, about to graduate from our youth group years.
amateurs broke the windows and stole 1 out 2 cases of cds. apparently, we separated our music into christian and secular cases, because you cannot mix the two. it's a sin.
bastards left us with the christian music.
they clearly looked through the case, and must have thought, "no thanks".
so there was no chance for this experience to be redeemed by the possibility that jesus might come into their hearts after listening to christian alternative rock. a sad day.
305. scout said:
this one time, at band camp....
306. chayley1124 said:
Textbooks are constantly being stolen at my college's campus & resold to a used bookstore down the street. I had a friend leave a calc book in plain sight on her backseat. Someone broke in, stole that text & several others, but left behind the iPod & fancy watch that were in her console. Pretty obvious what they were looking for...
Bikes are also highly desired on college campuses. My sister took hers to Oklahoma State at the insistence of my parents. She never used it, and at the end of the year when she couldn't find it, she assumed it had been stolen. Then she saw it, in the same spot she'd chained it the first day of school-rusted & lonely. She left it behind & told my parents it was stolen-she knew that would cause less trouble than bringing it home in that condition!
307. bethyboo said:
A couple of years ago, I was in my favorite Friday night bar with 3 or 4 of my friends. We always sit in the same booth, the one on the end with an extra bench on the back where we all put our stuff. That night, there was a shabby looking guy sitting on our bench. I thought nothing of it until I realized that I'm totally paranoid and i reached back to grab my bag and the guy flinched. So he got to his feet as I scooched out of the booth and I saw that my stuff had been dumped on the floor. By the time I realized he'd made off with my super-cute pink faux-leather wallet and my super-cute iPod with the pink iPod sock he was already out the door and out of sight.
My brother likened the event to being robbed from your living room. We were so comfortable in that place and our bags were RIGHT behind us.
People sure suck.
But then a few weeks later at the same bar, my friends surprised me with a new BETTER iPod. So, i guess not all people suck.
308. Mark7r0n said:
When visiting my grandparents in Borger, TX some time around 1989 or 90 some prick broke into our family's Ford Astro. They had to have been sad to see that there was nothing but trash from 3 kids being crammed in a car for 6 hours and a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (read: The Brick.) Well he or she left the phone but took the battery and then slashed up the 2 front seats of the poor Ford. So for a $50 battery the prick did a few hundred dollars worth of damage. Jerk.
309. Tori said:
A few years ago I left my Jeep parked at a friends house for a few weeks while I moved. It wasn't my main transportation and I thought it would be safer parked there than on the street elsewhere. When I went back to get it, my key wouldn't fit in the ignition.
It turns out that the would be thieves had used a column press to take out the center of my steering wheel to gain access to the ignition switch in the column and changed my ignition! The locksmith kept saying to me "Where's your other key?" and I kept telling him- it's never been rekeyed it has original factory keys. He finally got it and then told me what had happened.
The reason that they didn't steal it: I had disconnected the battery so that my friends kids wouldn't jump in and play with the air horn switch. They were smart enough to change my ignition switch to my Jeep but not smart enough to reconnect the battery.
Also, I'm sure that you know this but in case you don't. If your I-Pod is registered with Mac you can call it in stolen and the next time it's connected to a computer it will shut down and will be unusable to the person that stole it. Hopefully they'll call support and be told that you can't use a stolen I-pod motherfucker. It then becomes totally useless to them and anyone they try to sell it to.
310. sveedish said:
Eleven years ago, newly transplanted into San Francisco, I was still dumb enough to cling to my car. Some friends and I had decided a day at Golden Gate park would be fun, and five of us piled into my 2-seater Honda CRX. The last one out forgot to lock the passenger door (nothing automatic in that car) and we returned to find the stereo gone sans the faceplate (I had that in my bag!), the glove box torn from the dash, my speakers and amp gone from the trunk, my treasured roller skates gone, and my battery unhooked (I'm guessing to turn off the alarm sound). I hate driving around knowing some gross person had been in it.
The next morning, I went out to the car to find someone had smashed the driver-side window, looked inside, discovered that someone else had already done the job of looting, and left.
It was going to be raining the next day, so I taped some plastic sheeting to the window with duct tape to save the upholstery. I also removed everything that wasn't bolted down in the car. That rainy morning, before heading to work, I check on the car. Someone had punched a hole in the plastic, ripped it open to further investigate the non-contents of my car, and left empty handed.
Thieves are dumb in Northern California too. But thorough!
I replaced the window and drove directly to LA to have my friend sell my car down there.
311. fachingnuts said:
I'm so sorry about the break-in! My car got broken into when I was in undergrad. There were a rash of break-ins in my neighborhood and I got to my car one morning to find a rear passenger window smashed.
The one funny thing is that I had a bunch of CDs in my car but I *never* put them in the right boxes. So Mr. or Ms. Thief got Brahms Symphony #4 in a They Might Be Giants box, Fiona Apple in a Natalie Merchant box, etc. Serves him or her right. :)
It still felt gross, though - that someone was in my car and touched my stuff. I felt so violated.
312. TxSuzyQ said:
I was sorry to hear this happened to you. Thieves just suck ass!
Someone broke into my explorer last year and only took my cell phone charger cord. Did they really have to break my window for this? Oddly enough, they didn't want the brand new vacuum cleaner.. STIll IN THE BOX, that was in the cargo area.
313. beth said:
I could spend all day reading these comments. here's my contribution:
when I lived in the city of St Louis (now I'm in the suburbs) my 98 Dodge Neon was stolen. I knew it was the most commonly stolen car in the city, and there had been a rash of car thefts recently, so the morning I walked outside and my car was missing, I just cursed mildly and called the cops.
the best parts:
1. they found the car the next day on my street, 5 blocks down. I'd been planning to get gas on the way to work and the fuel light was on.
2. They parked illegally in front of a hydrant and the cops wrote me a ticket BEFORE noticing that the car was trashed and that it had been reported stolen.
3. the stero they stole was broken.
4. I am a total absent-minded slob and my car looks like I live in it. absolutely nothing was missing, other than the stereo. and they took out the whole dash to get to it.
I totally agree that there's nothing more ick than the thought that someone was touching your stuff. I couldn't bear the thought of driving a car that strangers had been it. it still makes my skin crawl to think about it. fortunately, whatever thieves do to the steering column to steal a Dodge Neon totals the car, so I got a new car.
314. EmmyC said:
Have to add my story - my old Jeep was broken into in a university commuter lot. Thankfully they left my stereo (an old one with no CD) and I had taken my law books and $400 jacket with me.
But they took a very old cell phone and a can of Static Guard. When I told the University cop about the Static Guard, and that I suspected the theives were huffing it, he laughed so hard that I thought he was going to pass out or pee himeslf. I eventually had to interrupt him "yes, I agree it is hilarious, can we finish my paperwork?"
Static Guard - gets you high and smells fresh too!
315. FeelinFroggy said:
My car has been broken into three times in the past year. The first time they took my generic $49.99 CD Player and the COVER TO THE DASH!!!
Talk about insult to injury.
This last time they took my headset for my cell phone but not my Steve Martin book on CD (which I still cannot listen to).
I take comfort in hoping that, while fumbling to hold me cell phone and drive, I will run over the ass who took my hands free head set.
316. maggie said:
I used to go out in downtown Dallas pretty frequently, and I would always park on the dark back streets where you could park free, rather than pay $5 to park in a well lit parking lot that wasn't 2 miles from where I was going. After all, I needed that $5 for beer. At the time, I also carried most of the stuff I needed for a day or two of living in the back of my car, along with pretty much every cd I owned and a bunch of other stuff that naturally accumulated there over several years. Needless to say, my loaded backseat was an easy target. I don't think the theives got much for their work, but it was sure a pain in the ass for me.
317. sheilastorm said:
I have never had a car worth stealing..but a friend of mine had hers stolen, it was recovered a day or so later during a meth bust. It's one of my favorite stories ever...
"They had pulled her over that afternoon, she had had the car for over a day,and she was just cruising around in my car with out of state, expired tags.
Not the brightest thief.
The police officer asked me if I had any things in the car, as there were “things†in it. I told him that I had recently moved and, yes I may have left a few belongings in the car.
So after work I went down to the cop shop to claim the KIA. It was full. I don’t just mean full, it was PACKED. The detective told me to put everything that wasn’t mine in a pile on the ground. I started unloading and ended with a pile that was 4 feet high. It included, but was not limited to;
-Clothes, three stuffed garbage bags of clothes.
-2 large cowboy hats
-A black suede fringed jacket
-2 very nice REI back packs
-2 sleeping bags
-Countless large and small stuffed animals
-A bathroom cabinet, mirrored
-A tackle box
-Porn, maybe 25-30 mags, real kinky
-A large framed poster of Rupaul
-Mail, she had stolen mail from 10-12 houses around my neighborhood
-Several empty handles of cheap wine
-A bundle of sticks
-A box of new pots and pans
-A set of champagne flutes
She had hung a plastic lei around the rearview mirror and lined up a menagerie of stuffed animals on the dash. She showed more pride of ownership in that car than I ever have.
Wow, you are thinking, that is really strange.
No, the strangest thing was that after I unloaded all of her crap, I noticed something. She had cleaned my car. The dash was gleaming, steering wheel slick with armorall. The windows were washed and she managed to get a stubborn coffee stain out of the seat upholstery. My tapes were organized and she had emptied the ashtray.
Apparently this is all very normal behavior for a tweaker, and she is now in jail for her several other outstanding felonies, including harm to children."
Meth is a he** of a drug...
318. jennm926 said:
I honestly think you haven't owned a car unless you've had something stolen out of it...
When I was in college, my boyfriend had his car broken into while we were out at a club. Here's a rundown of what was taken:
1. His sweatshirt
2. Tapes & CDs
3. Leftover food from dinner. Yes, half-eaten, leftover food.
4. Change from ashtray.
Everything else was left intact. What really sucked is that he parked the car on the street not more than ten feet from the entrance to the club. The thief broke the window closest to the club entrance, and no one saw a thing.
To the complete OPPOSITE end -- when I was very, very young, my dad had this van that he used to joke was so ugly - NO ONE would steal it. To prove his point, he left the keys in the ignition at all times. I remember going to the mall with him and him leaving the van in the parking lot, windows down, doors unlocked and keys in the ignition. Two hours later, we left the mall. They took the ashtray off the dashboard, but the van was intact. I guess he was right!
319. HorribleReality said:
I was living in an apartment community that a bunch of wannabe gang members hung around (I say wannabe because it's the fucking suburbs...a couple miles northeast you hit farming communities) I had gotten my first non peice of shit car, a 2000 geo prizm, nothing flashy, not even electric windows. The first week I had it they tried to break in ....by fishing a screwdriver around in the keyhole trying to get after my factory am/fm radio. Thats all that was in the car. Well because they were half ass gangsters they couldn't even get in! I couldn't open my door from that side, it wasn't enough for my insurance to care about but too much for a poor college student to fix....for 3 years I got in my car through the passenger door. I can't tell you how much now that I have a new car that I appreciate not having a parking brake go up my ass everytime I get in the car.
320. Nikki said:
How's this for idiotic? Back in 1996, some teens broke into the future hubby's 91 Firebird. We go walking outside in the not so great city of Newark in the even less great state of Delaware so that future hubby could drive me home before curfew. I was 17 and that is important later on, anyway, when we walked up to the car it just didn't look right and that was because they had busted the passenger side window out. So we look around and realize that one of fh's replica reenactment swords is sticking out of the neighbor's yard. That's when we realized what had happened. He goes inside, calls the police and we go through all that mess. Meanwhile, I'm ok going through the car and seeing that the idiots took the broken cd player WITH faceplate but am pissed that they took the walkman that had the Monty Python tape in it. I look over and see that it wasn't enough to bust in and steal those things, oh no, they had to bust the driver's seat, slash the interior of the roof, dump sauce packets on the seat and be all around jackasses. Those things served as reminders until the day we traded the car in about 2 years later but I was ok with all of that until I realized they had taken my purse which is when I was outside with a mag-light looking for them. So, fh calms me down, continues going through the car and busts up laughing. It seems as they were going through the car towards the back, they came across the sword before they came across the laptop sitting right the hell underneath it!
I actually went through the pain in the ass process of restitution and the joke of a program called VOMP, Victim Offender Mediation Program. DE has this idea that if you give the criminals a chance to pay you back for the damage and give the victim a chance to yell at the criminal, all is well with the world. It is NOT by any means. I had to fight nonstop to get a measly $45 bucks back and fh never even got the money back to fix his car or cover the loss of his stuff. The worst part to me out of all of it was having the "representative" of the two guys tell my mother that we needed to be understanding of their situation. Both boys were young, had single mothers and needed patience. That would be where my mother and I had to disagree especially when it turned out that said boys were the same age as me. Here I was, 17 years old, a senior in high school, working evenings at MBNA so I could have money to go and buy the things I wanted. In my case, those things were food, clothes, you know basic necessities because my alcoholic father had terminal colon cancer and wasn't working and since he was self employed his entire life because he didn't want to work anyway there was no money coming in there. My mother worked an hour away for income that is considered just past the poverty level and that left ME to watch the younger siblings. I'm sorry, at what point am I supposed to feel sorry for two assholes that were walking along and decided to go shopping at someone else's expense? I'm still waiting on VOMP's answer to that.
321. Half the Kidneys Twice the Fun said:
So Once I was drunk on pain killers post surgery, wandering around a grocery store, forgetting what I needed and wandering over to the opposite side of the store after I remembered I had needed something (this repeated for like 45 minutes). A
fter I checked out, I could NOT find my car keys. Turns out, they were IN my Car, with my Car turned ON, RUNNING. For like 45 minutes.
I am a freakin' genius.
322. SweetPea said:
I used to live in "The Hood" part of Minneapolis. I've been mugged, had things stolen out of my car and everything else you can think of. But I think the best thief was the one who stole my double stroller out of the back of my minivan, and the cell phone that I had accidentally left in the console. The intelligent thief decided to make some phone calls on my phone to brag about their huge, child-friendly loot-- TO THEIR HOUSE. Seriously. When the cops went over there to get 'em, they found a baby daddy pushing his two babies, and his baby momma walking alongside in her tank top, sweat pants and slippers chatting away on my cell phone.
323. serafina pekkala said:
Can't wait to read all the other tales of victimization! Here are my family's top 3:
* My parents' old Suburban was stolen from my dad's workplace. A colleague saw a young man driving it and assumed it was my brother, who was twelve at the time. Oops. It turned up four days later on top of a huge pile of dirt at a construction site at Newark Airport, unscathed. My dad's Club was still sitting on the front seat where he left it.
* My uncle left his Chevy Beretta idling at the curb while he stepped out and bought the Sunday papers 6 feet away under the awning of the corner store. A youngster jumped in and drove off -- d'oh! A week later it was recovered by the cops, intact, with an empty gas tank and a trunk full of baseball equipment, golf clubs, a Yankees Starter jacket, etc. Only thing missing? His soundtrack tape to "La Bamba."
* My own story has a sad ending. Staying over with college friends in Yardley, PA for one night, I left my zippered case with my Walkman and 10 favorite mixtapes in the backseat. Next morning, gone -- along with the sunroof and stereo. The police suspected neighborhood kids...one of which hopefully enjoyed my one-off, hand-notated, Pixies-heavy masterpieces. Sigh.
324. EEE said:
I assume that they steal the face plate because in some other car they've managed to steal the stereo WITHOUT the face plate...and they can match them up and sell the pair.
325. Kathy Barobs said:
When I was in college in Dayton, OH someone broke into my car & rummaged through all my cassettes, apparently they didn't think much in my tast of music because they didn't take anything!
326. Teakerr said:
Ah Dooce, I think what would piss me off the most is that you are new to this neigborhood and now it will always feel a little different to you, not quite as safe and kind. People who steal suck!
I used to park at the Rose bowl every morning while I lived in Pasadena, Ca. so that I could go for a walk. While gone from the car for the 45 minutes it took me to walk around the Bowl some losers tried to cut the lock out of the passenger side door. Looked like they attacked it with a can opener.
They didn't get in. But, what did I have in the car? NOTHING. A car seat, a bag of garbage that you could plainly see was garbage, and no radio. Someone must have really wanted my quality 1986 Subaru wagon. In 2006. What a world.
327. Julie said:
Ok the vibrator story wins...hands down that's *the* funniest thing I've read in days! I can't stop laughing and I'm at work!
328. teri said:
I recently had my purse stolen out of my car while I walked my dogs in the park, in broad daylight, with about 100 other people at the park. The better story, however, belongs to my dad. A few years ago, he was working for an ad agency and during a lunch break, decided to run into a convenience store but left his car running since, brr, it was cold outside. When he came back out, he noticed a car that looked "exactly like his" driving away. Indeed, it was his car and in the back seat? $50,000 worth of film for a commercial shoot they had just completed. He did the walk of shame back to his agency and was promptly fired. That night, he heard a car in the driveway. HIS car. The thieves came back with his set of keys and stole their other car which was exactly 4 days old. My dad eventually recovered both cars, only because an astute policewoman thought it was strange that 4 kids were driving a brand new Jeep on donut tires. When she checked, it wasn't even in their records that the car was stolen. The cars were a little dented and beyond dirty, but inside the CD player was a gospel CD and a recording of a preacher's sermon. Nice that the thieves had found jesus. Later on that same week, my dad's wife left him, his mother died and his dog had to be put to sleep. Things since have definitely improved!
329. Tesky said:
I had my faceplate stolen last year. Same deal, they broke the little triangle window. I installed the stereo myself and added a couple extra bolts to keep it from jiggling, who knew it would save the stereo. Got a new faceplate and now I only have to live with the crowbar marks.
BTW, go to ebay and type in 'JVC faceplate'. They're selling for around $20 or less. If they had a clue they'd steal the alternator.
330. Elena said:
Just last night someone broke into our new car and stole the satellite radio. We both wept.
331. Pettyfog said:
My story isn't about a car break-in, but it may bring some joy to anyone who's ever had their stuff stolen.
My husband and I were leaving a grocery store at 10:30 one night when my purse was grabbed by some guys in a moving car. I probably looked like an easy mark, and I was. They yanked me right off my feet. My husband is 5'10", weighs 135, and looks like the typical computer geek, so the thieves probably thought he wouldn't give them any trouble. Besides, they were in a moving car, so what could anyone do to them?
What they didn't know was that my husband has a black belt in karate and lightning-fast reflexes. As soon as he figured out what had happened, he jumped into the open window of the car and started beating the crap out of the guy who had taken my purse. Everyone in the car, including the driver, panicked. The car peeled out trying to find a way out of the parking lot, with my husband hanging out of the car window still punching the purse-snatching passenger and trying to recover my purse.
Fortunately, the driver of the car had to slow down in order to avoid jumping the curb and hitting a building, and my husband took the opportunity to bail out, with only minor scrapes.
Two weeks later, a road maintenance worker found my purse in a ditch. Inside was my wallet with all of my credit cards and my driver's licence (my keys were in my coat pocket). The thieves got away with $1.32 in change and my checkbook, which they never used.
It was pretty scary at the time, but now I get a lot of satisfaction out of that story.
332. shannonO said:
Just recently a musician friend of mine (and you know how musicians are usually just rollin' in the dough) had his car broken into. In his car he had ALL of his hardware for his drum kit among other electronic equipment from the last show his band played. If that wasn't bad enough, on his front seat was his college class schedule and and a few bills - bills that had his home address.
That night, while he was in a music lab at school, they came back, stole his car, drove to his house, broke into his house and stole THE REST of his gear. Thousands of dollars worth of music equipment! They found the car the next day with the wheels stolen and the engine block ripped apart.
He's since had to move.
From someone who's also had her car broken into, PEOPLE CAN BE JUST TERRIBLE.
333. Joe said:
That ends it.
334. Debbie said:
When my Ford was within mere months of brand-new, it was sitting in the service department at a dealership, factory alarm system and all. My "Thief" (presumably a dealership employee) went to the trouble to get the *keys* and use the *remote* to dis-arm the alarm in order to remove the factory Ford stereo, including both pieces out of the dash AND the amp & disc changer out of the trunk.
As if that wasn't enough, they were kind enough to slash up the back seat and rear speakers with a box knife, which they left in the car when they were done. Yeah, good job, asshole. What'd ya get out of that? At least you can SELL a stolen stereo, what's either one of us going to do with a cut-up seat?
At least they re-armed the alarm when they were done...
335. Penny said:
We lost a dear friend in a roll over accident last year. He had his iPod on the front seat, and the cop remembered seeing it when he first got to the scene. One of the towing company lackeys took it, even after the personal stuff in the car had been inventoried. (Tampering with evidence.) Our friend's wife finally got it back about a month short of one year after the accident. (3 felonies and the dork only got community service.) Well, kid had tried to upload his gangsta rap onto it, but didn't do it right, so he couldn't even use it! What a retard! Let's steal stuff from a dead guy and really piss off his family and friends!
(Sorry this is kind of incoherent, rage turns off the speech centers of my brain.)
336. Wayward Goddess said:
My car break in story happen back in 1993 when I was still in high school. In fact, it happen in the high school parking lot. What makes it even better is, the school vice principal helped them break into my car. See then went to the office and told them they locked their keys in their car. So the VP gave them the office slim jim to pop the lock. they went out, popped my lock, helped themselves then kindly returned the slim jim to the office. So, what did they steal? My purse, which had nothing in it, a pack of Camel Lights and a zippo lighter which had my name, KIM, engraved in it.
So, later that week, my boyfriend is in the bathroom and asks for a light off these guys were were semi-friendly with. What does he pull out of his pocket but MY LIGHTER. Then hands it to MY BOYFRIEND! So that was how they were busted. I had them arrested and we went to court over it. The legal system being so grand - they actually told the judge that the doors weren't locked so they didn't actually "break in". They got off scott free and I got a lecture on the importance of locking up my belongings.
337. Workman said:
I had my car broken into when I lived in a really sketchy area of Long Beach. It may sound corny, but I felt really violated by the experience. For days, I would stand by the barred windows of my apartment and think, "They got into the car. How long until they get into here?"
338. SAREBEAR said:
went to a concert afew years ago in a bad part of detroit, my friend had a coded key pad to open her doors, so we thought leaving the keys under the seat so we didn't have to carry them was a great idea..(not the type of concert you'd take a purse) after we came out of the concert her lock had been popped off, the cd player, cd's my overnight bag and anything possible was gone. the car wldn't start, the thiefs tried to steal the car by breaking the cylinoid? all the while the keys were under the seat!!! some friends who were also @ the concert came to the rescue and started the car. we were so lucky not to get stranded in that 'hood that late @night...moral of the story watch where you park when going to harpos...
339. Katrina Jackson said:
My friend had a Jeep Wrangler, you know, with zip off windows? Instead of unzipping the windows to steal his stereo, the theif tried to break the door lock- unsuccessfully- and then sliced through the plastic window to get inside the car.
My friend told me he didn't care so much about the stereo, but that the theif could, at least, have done it without ruining the windows.
340. DPoem said:
About ten years ago, I parked my banged-up heap of a Dodge Omni in the parking lot at Summerfest here in Milwaukee (you'd like Summerfest by the way. 10 days of beer and devil music), and someone broke in as I was enjoying the bash. The thing is, there was nothing in my car to steal at that point other than a broken Pokemon watch and an empty bottle of bug spray that I'd not gotten around to tossing in the trash. The funny thing is, that's exactly what they swiped.
To this day, I honestly don't know whether or not they were thieves, or a gang of unsatisfied mothers that broke into my car to tidy the place up a bit.
341. Rene said:
My thievery story begins not with a car but another mode of transport - a bicycle. The city police knocked on the door of a house where I was living with my boyfriend and his roommates one day. Our roommate answered the door to find a policeman kindly returning his bicycle, which he didn't even realize had been stolen. The police said that they caught convict (on an attempted MURDER! charge), who escaped from the city jail, riding the bicycle around our neighborhood. Apparently, the escaped convict found our house appealing because it was set back from the road and not easily visible from the street. As he looked around, he considered the following options: 1) to break into the basement (only accessible from outside) and hide out there, 2) spend the night in a tent set up just outside a wooded area behind the house where my boyfriend and I had a pretend camp-out a few nights before or 3) steal the bike and ride to freedom. Luckily, no one was home with the fugitive arrived and he took the bike instead of waiting for us in the basement ... or the TENT!
342. Bobbi said:
I just found your web site (and love it), and had to comment with a story about my car getting broken into:
In summer of 2005, I woke up one morning to my cell phone ringing. My stepfather was calling to tell me that he was at the vet, and our cat Snickers was being put down because she just wasn't doing well anymore (she was down to about 3 lbs and very very sick). When I went to get into my car to go to the vet, I realized tht all my CDs were missing, and my Dooney and Bourke (which I had left in the car the night before) was not there. Yes, stupid to leave my purse in the car. Turns out, I had left the car unlocked all night. A couple hours later, I got a call on my cell phone from a woman about 20 minutes from my house saying that she had my purse, wallet, and everything was in it. I was SO thankful. And now, I am absolutely ANAL about two things: locking my doors as I get out of the car, and not leaving my purse in the car.
I'm sorry that you guys lost some stuff from your car. Your story is similar to mine - the ONE time you leave your car unlocked just happens to be the night that someone decides to break into your car. WTF!
Have a great (read: better) rest of the week!
343. karla said:
Our car was broken into about a month ago and, much like in your situation, it was broken into the one night I forgot to lock the it. The inside of our car was trashed, as in, random things from the glove compartment were strewn everywhere, including napkins and dog cookies and 300 old grocery lists and I still don’t know what they were looking for exactly because I am boring housewife who drives her car to starbucks and the grocery store. Surely our car was a huge disappointment because all that was in it was my blue yoga jacket, a baby seat and cd’s from 1994 that are so uncool that I am kind of embarrassed there is a dirty car thief out there who knows I still listen to Nirvana.
344. katbliss said:
Sorry about the break-in! I just read in Playboy that Utah is 50th in the country for alchohol consumption but number 1 in prescription pain killers... and I thought of you.
345. Pnutsugar said:
Two weeks ago, my mother went to the hospital, had a stroke the following morning, and remains in ICU. My father had to be taken to a nursing home as he is in final stages of Alzheimer's and couldn't be left alone. My sister drove there, I flew and rented a car which I turned in the following day.
After a week of hand-wringing in ICU, cleaning up their house and searching for the documents and bills our mom had hidden from our dad, making funeral arrangements for both, and writing our dad's name on all clothes and everything else for the nursing home, it's a week later and we are loading my sister's car to head home and back to our jobs and lives.
Mind you...her car does not have automatic locks so it's all gotta be done manually and I had been guilty of not locking it before in the week we had been there. She had left the driver's side open, clear up in the driveway of the house we grew up in, in a small Midwestern town, and that morning found everything out of the glove box on the front passenger seat. Only things taken were an old, unactivated cell phone and a new car charger she had just gotten for the trip which was for her current phone...and won't work on the stolen one. But they left her digital camera in its case in a cubby on the console.
Like we hadn't been through enough, just the thought of someone being in the car in the few hours we had slept...and the whole neighborhood is now pretty elderly so they must be easy pickings.
The old guy across the street stopped to ask about our parents and he said some guy had approached him the day before in the yard and asked for money. Maybe he just tried to help himself in my sister's car.
346. bonkersmomof4 said:
About 10 years ago, my husband worked in a very sketchy part of town (okay, what part of Memphis isn't sketchy?) and his Hyundai was broken into in the (gated) parking lot. What was stolen? A $10 umbrella stroller from Walmart, and MY BIBLE! For heaven's sake, why would you steal a Bible? Obviously, theives NEED one, but to steal it????
347. Chicago said:
Broke into house. Stole CD's. Took bottle of wine, but left it on the counter by the door. Only to find out, all the actual CD's were in the car. Thieves just got 100 empty cases!
348. PaulE said:
I have had my car broken into twice. The first time the would be robber tried to pull the locks out of both the driver and passenger doors. That happened on a Sunday morning, Monday morning locksmith comes out and replaces both the locks. As luck would have it, the robber came back late that night and was able to pull the lock out of the passenger door. After all that work to get in the car, the only thing missing was a $5 flash light. The second time some guy broke into 4 cars at the apartment was living at the time. Cops were able to determine the order in which he went. The cell phone in car 1 was in car 2. The purse that was in car 2 was in car 3 and the tools, of which he used to smash the window, from car 3 were found in my car, with my dash ripped apart, stereo missing and if it wasn't for the paper boy doing his rounds, my amp that was half ripped out would have been stolen too.
349. Bajagirl said:
Three weeks ago I had my car broken into in Downtown Memphis. I grew up in midtown so I have no fears about downtown but I was very irritated by what happened. Instead of breaking my window which would have been much better, they took a screwdriver and hammer to the passenger lock. So now my passenger door has no lock. But the best part is what they stole: 1) a box of 4 free cook books 2) the wireless adapter to my ipod - which never really worked 3) a can of fix a flat. All together less than $75 worth of stuff.
But the really best part, the next afternoon my toolshed was broken into and my lawnmower and cordless edger (without the plug) were stolen.
350. Bratfink said:
Yeah, I agree.
The bunny vibrator wins.
351. the niffer said:
Not a car story, but weird thievery story nonetheless:
I was teaching English in South Korea and was about a month away from returning to Canada when someone broke into my apartment. I was paid once a month in cash and had not made it to the bank yet, so there was a wad of about $1500 under my bed.
They took about $70 and left the rest. And then peed in my water bottle in the fridge.
352. bbireley said:
The reason that Utah has such a high incidence of car theft is simple - drug use (specifically meth). Utah is ranked among the highest for meth use in the country and the average meth habit costs between $200-$400 a day. I'm no math whiz, but I would guess that gets pretty expensive pretty fast and the average meth user isn't making that money legitimately, know what I'm saying? Most either steal (such as car or identity theft) or trade (for other drugs, or by prostitution).
Utah is awesome, right? The next time you think "oh drug use doesn't really affect me" - think again.
353. Aimee said:
About five years ago, I accidentally left my car unlocked over night. The next morning I was running late for work (of course) and it was raining. I ran out to my car, noticed that the door was cracked open and my front seat was soaked. I thought, "Aimee, you idiot! You left the freakin' door open!" I ran back in to the house to get a towel for the seat. After getting everything settled, I'm starting the car and noticed that it looked a little more trashed than usual. There were receipts and maxi pads all over the floor of the passenger seat. Then I thought, "Wow! The wind from the storm blew my glove compartment open. Dang!" OK, this is where the light starts to come on and I begin to realize what has really happened. I looked all through the car to see what had been taken. Luckily, there was nothing of value in the car (the stereo had already been stolen).
BUT HERE'S THE KICKER: As I got out of my car, I noticed there was something propped up on the trunk. After rubbing my eyes several times to make sure I wasn't imagining it, I saw that it was a note that the theif had scribbled onto an old receipt. To make sure I saw the note, he or she left behind his/her flashlight propped just right to shine on the note. And it said, "Hey Bitch. Next time leave some money in the car or I'm gonna kill you. XOXO" Just kidding about the XOXO, but the rest is verbatim. I still have the note in a scrapbook somewhere next to the hilarious police report.
Yeah, Houston rocks.
354. coraspartan said:
Only one of my vehicles has been broken into. The driver side window was smashed and our radar detector was stolen. Two things about this are remarkable:
1. Our insurance company actually sent someone out to fix the window THAT DAY--within an hour or so after I called them to report it. I couldn't believe it! AllState rocked! (Until I realized their rates were so ridiculous that I could have put my son through college on the premiums I was paying them.)
2. I live in a suburb of Detroit, yes Detroit, Michigan, and my car has only been broken into once! I know most Americans believe that Detroit is the most dangerous city in the U.S. (even if it's not), so this is my attempt to refute that belief with cold, hard facts. I can't believe these people in San Fran or even Utah whose cars have been broken into multiple times, and yet me, the Detroit area dweller, still only once!
355. coraspartan said:
Oh, I forgot to mention that I went to college in Detroit for 4 years. And only one break-in, and the break-in occurred in the burbs, not the city! It still surprises me.
356. e.toiles said:
i have never had my car broken into - but my sister has - had her entire stereo ripped out plus all the little speakers she replaced the factory ones with.
my grandmother's house was broken into. they came in through the back by cutting the screen door and picking the lock. the neighbors behind watched the entire process - even as they were carting everything out of the house - and said they thought they were out of town guests. they mistook the costume jewelry for the real thing and grandma made out with the platinum diamond "encrusted" watch and all the rest of her diamonds from a bazillion years ago. but she's crazy locked up now.
i had all my clothes plus the 150 bucks my mother gave me to go to the beach with my two dude friends stolen from our towel while i was probably 10 feet away in the ocean. who wants dirty underwear and a 15 year old's jeans with 25 cent flip flops?
my best friend and her mother were held at gun point after coming back from an indian dance recital (her mother teaches indian dance after having been in an arranged marriage there for years) with all her REAL gold costume jewelry on. if you don't know about indian jewelry for that situation, it's all over you. this was on the street of their house in an area well known for safety.
i however have left my passenger side window down with all sorts of valuables in the car and my cd player, complete with faceplate, all night long until noon the next day - with nothing touched. the worst that has happened is i found a very nice cocktail dress laying on my hood a couple weeks later. i gave it to goodwill.
all this happened in Birmingham, AL (except for the beach, which was in Gulf Shores, AL)- which was recently named the 5th most dangerous city in america. good ol balyama.
p.s. huffing static guard? i use that on my hair and accidentally breathing it in makes me want to vomit. it's like it puts a coating of ...static guard... in my nostrils. yuck.
357. ky_expatriate said:
My mother's Volkswagon Beatle was stolen; my father's entire wardrobe was in the trunk. Since this was the mid-70s, I can only assume that the thieves were performing a public service....
358. Tiggerlane said:
Has Mormonism become so oppressive that they're having to steal iPods to hear the latest music to dry-hump to? My goodness...so glad I left the church years ago.
Used to live in Houston, back in the days where cell phones were as big as a small child. My dad had big Lincoln Town Car, and the thieves smashed his front windshield - stole this HUGE freakin bag cell phone, some ninja sword things he had in the back seat (don't ask), the CB radio, the stereo, ripped the antennaes off the car - but left Dad's .45 pistol laying on the front seat, totally untouched.
Then they flattened all the tires - and keyed the car. Too bad Dad didn't show up in time to shoot the dumbasses.
359. Flambo said:
While I was living in L.A., my car had several things happen to it in a 12-month period: It was stolen (then recovered), broken into, vandalized, backed into, then sued for a silly accident that didn't actually happen. Oh wait - I was sued, not the car. The car was apparently my accomplice.
But the single ray of light in the sea of all these stupid events was this...
...As I was walking towards my car one morning, noticing the mess of broken glass on the road by the passenger door, the one thought in my mind was: "They better not have taken my brand new black leather knee-high Nine West boots, goddamnit."
Sure enough, there they were, still in their silver box in the back seat of my battered Honda Civic. All my change and mixed tapes, however? Gone.
I didn't care. I may have had to drive around with a broken window and sit on shards of glass, but I could do it while looking hot in those knee-high boots.
360. >^..^< said:
They steal shit in Utah? I just moved to Utah from California and was hoping to get away from that sort of thing. I feel bad that at your nice, new home you can't even feel safe .... goddamn Mormons! At least they TIDELY broke into your car .... must have been a frustrated housewife in serious need of some erotic tunes ("Hey little thing let me light your candle, cause 'a' mama I'm so hard to handle now, mess around ....").
361. sneakyleq said:
When I was a teenager I worked as a hostess. One night I had parked behind the restaurant in the alley where the busboys were contantly going in and out to throw out the trash so I figured it was safe enough since all the other employees parked back there.
When my shift ended I got in my car, closed the door, and a bunch of glass had slid onto my lap. I couldn't figure out what had happened as everything appeared to be intact and nothing stolen. I finally realized that someone had poked a hole around where my registration and inspection sticker were and stolen my newly updated stickers! Bastards! It cost me almost $300 to replace my window which was a fortune to a starving college student!
362. janet said:
I can't beat the 666 plate or the neon blue rabbit vibrator. I haven't laughed this loudly in awhile. Thanks.
I received an 18 lb. ham for Christmas from the really generous hotel/casino I worked at in Vegas. The thing was frozen solid. Since even in December living in Vegas is kin to camping on the sun, I threw it in the back of my Buick Skyhawk hatchback figuring the sucker would thaw out by the time I got home.
I had a few errands. Oh all right, I stopped at my then asshole gambling addict good-for-nothing boyfriend's apartment. Upon leaving, the window of my hatchback was busted and the HAM WAS GONE. Why the ham? What was I supposed to tell the police? They broke into my car and stole my ham?
I was forced to eat the 49 cent 24-hour Palace Station big ham breakfast the rest of Christmas break.
363. Evanzstox said:
We had a black Honda. It was a magnet for theft. The H’s were ripped off the wheels a zillion times, the doors broken, and stupid items stolen such as a $5.00 crystal charm and my lip smackers. One night a bastard thief tried to steal the car by jamming a screwdriver down the ignition, the damn screw driver broke off and the Honda was left lifeless, causing over $800.00 in damage. A year later, another fool tried to take it but did not succeed. That thief only caused about $500.00 in damages.
3 years later, once the Honda was paid off, and moments after my husband put an ad in the paper to sell it, the Honda that we named after a Disney princess was finally stolen, never to be seen again. It was a relief, to finally have the Honda pass on. The most upsetting part was that I left a punch card from Beans and Brews (my favorite coffee shop) inside the Honda, and I only needed one more punch for a free coffee.
Every now and again I think I see our Honda driving in the distance, I have crossed over highway islands, and have nearly been hit by Tracks (utah train) while trying to get a good look, but Jasmine is never there, only a fragment of my imagination, or the Honda’s way of letting us know she is all right.
364. Joe said:
ok THAT ends it.
365. Muffy Wong said:
Instead of giving you the details, PLEASE read this blog post a friend of mine wrote about a friend of HERS who experienced some true "car ma"
http://vivalalesley.livejournal.com/508536.html
366. George said:
A friend of mine, an English professor, was moving across the country with a car full his worldly possessions, including a collection of rare books. (You can see where this is going, maybe?) Thieves broke in and stole everything but the only things worth thousands and thousands of dollars.
367. CuteIvan said:
Many years ago a car my then-boyfriend (now husband) was keeping for a friend was stolen in Austin; once recovered, we discovered the joy-riding car thieves had only taken our mixed tapes and the book "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger, which I had not finished and have never gotten again, although I was enjoying it... More recently my parents' car was expertly broken into while we were all in San Antonio; we couldn't even tell how they had gotten in! They took all the good stuff like our digital cameras and my mother's purse. Despite all of the frustration and pain-in-the-ass-itude it caused my mother to cancel all of her credit cards, etc., the upside is that their insurance reimbursed us a ridiculously large amount for our old crappy camera so we only had to spend a little more to get a Nikon D50! Yippee!
368. one hot mama said:
The best car break in story I know of happened to a friend of mine that was living in Southie (Boston) at the time. She was parked on the street and had a bunch of stuff on her passenger seat that she needed to mail, including thank you notes from her wedding. Among the missing items was all of that mail, including the thank you notes. She was pretty peeved about having to write them all again on top of dealing with being broken into. But guess what? About a week later she found out that people had received their thank yous. Apparently whoever broke into her car was thoughtful enough to mail the notes for her.
369. Shannon said:
While I was still in college, my car got broken into . . . in my parents driveway . . . while we were all at home! They took the face plate off my radio, cracked part of my dash before they realized they weren't getting the whole stereo without actually removing the dash, and took my cell phone charger. Cell phone chargers, by the way, aren't covered by car insurance, but homeowner's insurance. With a really high deductible. When the new face plate finally arrived, we discovered that they had also taken the trim ring that goes around the face of the radio to make it look pretty. You know, because that may be of some value. The entire book of approximately 100 CDs in my car? Still there. Go figure. After paying to replace the charger that wasn't covered, my neighbors found it in their bushes a few weeks later. I just couldn't believe someone had broken into my car right there outside my bedroom window. Creeped me out totally. Jerk.
370. snoozie said:
Like another poster - I left my keys in the door lock of my car near the corner of Rush and Division in Chicago (really busy night-life neighborhood). I stayed over at the b-friend's apartment and come morning couldn't find my keys. Yup! Someone had tucked them neatly between the door handle so it didn't look to conspicuous. That was nice.
During my wedding reception, my car was broken into and my CD player stolen. Not so nice!
cheers, all!
371. Catsoup said:
Good Lo'. Here's the weird part: you get your stuff stolen in Utah, but not in the world capital of car theft and all around crunk mess, Memphis.
I've lived in and around it for 34 years now. I know.
372. Aunt Jenny said:
My honey is currently in Detroit on business four days a week, and yesterday his sunglasses AND BOTTLE OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS were stolen from his hotel room.
Housekeeping CLEARLY knew not the hell they were unleashing...
373. heartbreaker said:
Oh yes...
Theres no way to say this nicely, but I am a total slob and when I don't regularly clean my car, the side storage compartments get filled up with tissues. One day I moved the tissues into a rubbish bag, which I put in the compartment in the back seat.
So my car got broken into one day, WHILE LOCKED IN A CAR PARK WITH A BARBED WIRE AROUND IT, which I will never understand. They clearly went to great lengths to get to my car, as it was the only car in the carpark. My 1984 Ford Laser Gertie, as dirty and sexy as she is.
So the next day, when I went to get my car, I KNEW I had locked it. And it was open. Turned out they went through EVERY damn thing in my car. They turned out every dirty tissue, so they were lying all throughout the car. Bags of them. Every single freakin' tissue, nothing was left upturned. Did they think I was hiding diamonds in there?
So I guess the only thing they actually got from that was the flu. Oh, and about 50c and $18 blue lights at the front of my car. Of course it cost like, $70 to fix the door.
My boyfriend has also had his car broken into twice in the last two years...once they broke the side panel as well, but he wasn't quite as accepting as you were.
374. Jaycee said:
My friends got married a couple of months ago. They were due to go on their honeymoon early the next morning and made a special effort to get the wedding presents out the car that night. Luckily they did because the car was missing when they went to leave for their honeymoon.
The car has since turned up and they were able to talk the airline into getting them on a later flight.