Pain in the glass
Some jackhole broke into my car.
I wasn't the only one. My neighbor's car was parked in the same row as mine. His also got broken into. In both cases it was the same thing - that little triangular window on the back driver's side door was busted. The perp (look at me with the cop-talk) could reach in and unlock the back door, then enter the car and rummage for stuff. The back door of my neighbor's car was left ajar; mine was still closed. Of course, my car alarm goes off as soon as the latch is pressed, his was disengaged.
No other car in our part of the lot was touched.
Then again, no other car in our part of the lot had stuff on the seats. My neighbor had some CDs and other stuff. I had a gift bag for our office gift exchange.
For those of you who have never lived near the drug trade, most car break-ins are not done by people who want the car. Heck, most of the time the bastards don't even take the more valuable items in the car, like the radio or the dashboard Mary. People breaking into cars are looking for cash or something that can be turned into cash quickly so they can buy their next fix. A radio has to be disassembled and then sold; that takes time. Gathering ten bucks from two or three different cars only takes a few minutes.
When I lived in Philly my car got broken into. The only thing I lost was my $80 sunglasses, but the greeting cards I left in the glove compartment had been torn open. That SOB wasn't looking for a Hallmark moment. Remember, people put money in greeting cards.
My apartment complex occasionally gets the unsavory sort wandering through. Across the nearby main road are several motels, which see less and less business from travelers and "John and Mrs. Smith" types now that some better hotels were built nearby. The motels now double as low-income housing for people on welfare (and are among the few places in town far enough away from schools for sex-offenders to live). A cop in town told me that there are actually gangs forming over there.
While off the beaten path for drivers, my complex is on the walking route between the motels and the local Wawa (a convenience store chain common in this area). I'm glad I'm moving.
Speaking of which, I move in two days. In two stinkin' days my car will no longer be parked in this lot overnight. Six years with no problems, then this happens 48 measly hours before I leave.
Grrr. Argh.
I took my car to the local Chevy dealer and hitched a ride into work with Ms N. I figured it would be about $200 or so to get a new window.
I thought wrong.
I'm assuming that the jackhole chose that little windows thinking he was doing us a favor. It made things no easier for him - the smaller surface area meant it takes more force to break through, then he had to clear enough away to reach the door lock inside. Had he gone through the main window, he would have had plenty of clear space for his arm. Yeah, I broke your window, but I only broke the tiny window!
Guess what, fothermucker, that window happens to be the most expensive piece of glass on the entire freakin' car!
You see, the bigger windows on the door roll up and down, which means they are not permanently affixed to the vehicle. If one of those breaks, you pop the inside cover off the door, clean out the glass, stick in a new window, and reattach the liner. No big deal.
Those small windows, on the other hand, are permanently attached. To swap one out, you have to take out pieces and reattach other pieces, then put on the weather-stripping and whatnot. Hello new window, good-bye $730.
Growl. Snarl.
Oh, and the gift bag most likely led to the break-in? Every year we have a secret Santa gift exchange. Last year I forgot to bring my present in, meaning the admin whose name I drew didn't get her gift until a day after everyone else. For the past two weeks my co-workers have been ribbing me about it. In order to make sure I didn't forget the gift this year, I put the bag in the car as soon as I finished wrapping the gifts.
My previous job had a $20 limit on the gift exchange, but not my current one. We have two unique rules to ours.
1) You give your lucky recipient five separate gifts, each of which has to be useful to or representative of that person.
2) You can only buy the gifts at a dollar store.
