Roaring Back

Math class is still kicking my ass. But oh so close to being done.

I did manage to put up so posts today, so that makes me feel better.

I'm a bit out of sorts since I just heard my sister nearly had her car broken into. She walked up to it in the parking lot and there was this huge hole punched into the driver's side door just below the door handle. The story goes that someone must have come along and tried to slip something in her window – since there's damage there, too - to unlock the door. You know, like a coathanger although it's more likely that if this was a professional car thief it was a slim jim. It took me roughly five minutes to figure out that's what those little dealies that the tow trucks all carry are called, by the way, it's something I have some first hand experience with but for whatever reason, I was stuck on calling them slim jacks which is absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell. Anyhow, they were unsuccessful and so they took a crowbar and tried to simply pry off the lock from the outside. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful but they managed to gouge a huge hole in the metal around the lock. My sister's question, and mine, was why didn't they just smash in the window if they were going to go through all that trouble but, I guess, talking to the insurance company is that thieves have learned to avoid breaking the window since that would set off the alarm. To which my question is, and punching a hole in the side door doesn't?

This all happened while my sister was only a few hundred yards away by the way. She was taking rowing lessons and was on the water in full view of the parking lot. Along with dozens of other people nearby, too. And no one noticed someone slipping between two cars and going to work at a door with a crowbar. Which, actually, I kinda believe since way once upon a time, I was working parking for some event – a concert, I believe – and just hanging out watching the lot and waiting to direct the traffic out afterwards. And this guy walks up demanding to know what happened to his car. Having no idea, I went over with him to take a look and, sure enough, someone had nearly busted the handle off trying to get into the locked car. The paint was chipped and scratched like someone had been scraping at it with something metal, I could buy it being a crowbar. Since I remembered the guy pulling up, this happened while I was standing there on the lot watching. It was on the passenger's side, facing away from where I would have roughly been, so it seemed like someone had crept up between the rows of parked cars and broke into it even though I was on watch (I mean, not like I was hyper-vigilant or anything. This was a minimum pay, beer money kind of job in college and I wasn't exactly going above and beyond. I wasn't patrolling the lot with a flashlight and a billy club or anything like that. But I did think I had some duty to look over the cars that had been, in some sense, entrusted to me. So I kept an eye out for anything suspicious. Which nearly got me into trouble once but that's a story for another time.). It wasn't a nice car but the guy was the kind of person who'd put a $15k stereo system in a $5k car. Except it was gone and he was understandably upset, wanting me to do something about it. I offered to call the cops – which was about all I could do since the liabilities involved meant that I and the company I was representing weren't responsible for anything that happened to the cars once they were parked, not that I really knew that at the time but I could instinctively tell it was CYA time - but he declined and drove off. Never heard from him again. My boss was convinced it was a scam. The car was damaged when he pulled in and I just didn't notice it – since it was all on the passenger side – and he was just trying to get us on the hook for paying for a new stereo. I'm not so sure.

Point is, I'm convinced it can and does happen. But, you know, I hate to say it what with the reputation that Detroit has but my sister was parked on Boblo. Used to be a nice place. I remember going to the park there a few times, riding the ferry – the Boblo Boat - to get there and all, when I was younger but these days it's pretty run down and, frankly, dangerous. Her purse and things were on her front seat in full view and everything, so my sister's car was bound to get hit. Honda, too, those attract a lot of grand theft autos. Anyhow, I got the call since I'm apparently my sister's go-to when it comes to repairing all things mechanical. I've recommended that she head to the repair shop as soon as possible to get it fixed even though the car's still drivable. Hopefully, she'll get on that.

Sigh, but enough anecdotes for now. Time to get back to studying.