Well, someone broke into my car in downtown San Jose. They smashed the passenger side rear window and took my electrical repair toolbox and my vinyl seat-back trash container.
I get some pleasure from the idea of them thinking they have a backpack or car supplies bag, and then digging through snotty tissues, dirty candy bar wrappers, and moldy apples and being frustrated.
About a month ago someone broke into my car on my street in front of my house and stole my radio. I had spent quite a lot of time building a car MP3 player setup including a motorized flip-out LCD screen, and I had replaced the Honda Civic dash panel with a standard DIN panel myself. It was less about the cost of the items and more about the work I'll have to do again.
The funny thing was that they didn't take the laptop body laying on the rear seat, nor did they take my CDs from the console, nor the PC keyboard I keep in the glove box. In this last burglary, they took my electrical toolbox (containing screwdrivers, whoopee...) but didn't take the halogen work lamp, nor my CDs, nor my guitar effects processor which was also in the back seat. Carol theorized that there may be gang-related initiation going on, and so kids are breaking into cars without knowing what's really valuable and what's not.
I'm just frustrated that my car's been burgled twice in as many months.
What really puts the icing on this cake is that, as my car sat on 11th with shattered glass all around it, a police officer ticketed me for being in a red zone. I've been parking in this red zone (the neighborhood assumed it was decommissioned after 11th street became one-way) for five months now and never got a ticket. Of course I get one on the day my car window is smashed. (I only refrain from stating my true feelings about his or her character out of civic duty.)
I guess the lessons to take away from these are "don't leave anything interesting in plain sight in your car," and "always take your stereo faceplate with you," and "verify the parking zone you're violating is actually decommissioned."
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