Crime on Wessyngton Road

It was week before last that someone broke into my car. I had gone outside to put something I didn't want to forget in the car before heading to work, and on the front passenger's seat was a pile of shattered glass. I have had stuff taken from my car before, when I left it unlocked, but never had it broken into before. A few weeks before someone had taken the little bit of money I had left in the armrest compartment between the two front seats - it wasn't much - maybe $12 - but whoever had taken it had left the compartment open and the other contents scattered.

So this time, there was no cash in the car, and nothing else that anyone would want to take - but the compartment was open again. Nothing else seemed to have been touched, except of course for the window, which had been reduced to a glittering pile of tiny geometric shapes, at the curb, inside the door of my car, and on the sweater I had left on the passenger's seat.

I had to go to work, so I took the Cavalier. Tom said he supposed insurance wouldn't cover it; I said I had no idea, and asked him to call. It turns out that not only was it covered, but that State Farm it down to a fine art, the business of fixing cars that have been broken into. Two guys with a van and a vacuum cleaner came and replaced the window, and got rid of almost all the broken glass that was inside the car.

I called 911 to report it, just to get it on the record that it had happened, and a police officer came by to take my report. By the time I called, the window was fixed, but the pile of broken glass next to the curb in front of Sally's house and the bent place on the window frame was left as evidence. She looked at the car and said, they popped it, they put a tool in right there and pried the glass, which shatters it without making any noise. She pointed to the plastic disk on the dashboard and asked if I had a GPS. Yes, I told her, but it wasn't in the car. As far as I know, they didn't take anything at all. I told her about the $12 that had disappeared a couple weeks before, that I hadn't bothered to report. She thought most likely they were looking for the GPS. Maybe I can take that off the dashboard and stick it to the windshield, I said. She said it wouldn't help, that the suction cup would leave a circle on the window that would be visible, and that is what they looked for. Crackheads, she said, this is a crackhead kind of crime. Only crackheads would break into a car looking for a GPS that they can hock for $10. Had we seen anyone suspicious on our street? No, I told her, but I would let the neighbors know to call 911 if they saw anything.

I am not completely sure what a "suspicious" person would look like - on our street, I guess it would be someone walking who didn't have a dog. I suspect crackheads who break into cars for $10 GPS units (or $12 cash) do not have dogs. So I sent out an email to my neighbors, and I don't keep cash in my car anymore. Tom took the car to the body shop last week, and the bent frame around the window got fixed, so you can't tell by looking at the car that anything ever happened.

One good thing did come out of this. About a year and a half ago, I hit the brakes and my Ray-Ban sunglasses flew off the passenger's seat next to me and I never saw them again. I really thought they were in the car, but maybe they ended up in the Alon's bag that was sitting on the floor on the passenger's side, and got thrown out inadvertently. I looked several times and never found them.

But the guys who replaced my car window did find them. When they left, there they were, sitting on the passenger's seat.