by Beks
Some horrid person decided to break in to my car last night while we slept. It was parked in my driveway but apparently, that doesn’t stop some folks from strolling up and taking what isn’t theirs.
Fortunately, I’m a tidy person and keep nothing but essentials in my car. They got away with $20 in emergency cash, the change drawer in its entirety, and my sense of security.
As my husband was helping me clean up the mess – because it wasn’t enough to steal from me, so they had to destroy my car – at 5:30 in the morning, he smiled and said, “At least your music taste is so bad, thieves don’t even want to steal it!” while holding up my CD case.
“Thanks” I said.
“Not one CD is missing” He said while flipping through the case.
“I noticed” I replied.
“Look! They clearly went through it and decided it sucked.”
“OK hon. I get it!” I yelled.
“Can’t imagine why no one would want Mama Mia, Michael Jackson, or Katherine McPhee. What kind of world are we living in??” he laughed sarcastically.
I’m not sure which is worse. Discovering you have been robbed or having a lowlife thief validate your husband’s assertion that you have awful taste in music.
We’re pulling some cash from our emergency fund and installing floodlights above our cars because…
You never know. He might come back for my totally awesome cd collection.
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
Scum…
I had someone break in my car and steal a crappy fake necklace & a pair of broken sunglasses. Obviously these thieves aren’t very smart.
I’m terribly sorry to hear that your car had been broken into. It is the worst feeling – like you really can’t trust anyone anymore. I’ve had someone break into my car by breaking the car window just to get at some loose change in the cup holder.
Sorry to hear about that. How terrible!
Who cares if some thief doesn’t like your music…on the other hand…instead of floodlights, why not set up your CDs to play when the car alarm goes off…that will get the thief out of there, lol!
We have had the same issue of someone breaking to our car in the underground ‘secure’ car park. The worst bit was that they broke the window in a way that we needed to get more then just the glass fixed.
I heard of someone having their car broken into and they made away with the paper map (maybe they thought it was some kind of primitive GPS?? hehe)
And whats so wrong with Michael Jackson?? Millions of fans can’t be wrong?
Lazy people. They try to say that economic conditions breed this type of behavoir, and maybe to a certain extent they do. But I believe if you were raise up good with morals and manors then this wouldn’t be a problem. It’s called “SPANKING YOUR KIDS” people. I am sorry you had to go through this.
Reminds me of school when someone practiced their batting skills with one of my side mirrors and then left it on the ground for me to find, no note, nothing, it cost me $96 to repair it!
So sorry to hear that… Years ago when both my sister and I were still living with mom, we both had two low-end cars. My sister had told me that there were thieves in the neighborhood breaking into cars and I had laughed at her saying who would want our crappy cars… Lo and behold, both of our cars were broken into on the same night which were carefully parked under the street light:) I got them alarms the same day after our stereos were stolen and windows smashed…
What sucks even more is that you have to pay a deductible to have your insurance repair the damage. That’s like getting robbed twice!
I once has a car stereo with a “detachable face”, so that if someone broke in an stole the stereo.. it would be useless to them.
They broke into the car and stole my stereo the day I forgot to take the detachable face off.
Sorry that happened to you. I’m glad that the whole car wasn’t taken.
That is horrible. i’m really sorry this happened to you.
My friend used to live in a city where it’s common to have your car broken into. She said that people in her neighborhood have learned to never keep anything of any value in their car and to roll down their windows at night to prevent people from smashing them to break in. I guess a rolled down window is a way of telling the thieves “Go ahead and waste your time. There’s nothing of value in here.”
I’m so sorry Beks! I can’t believe they took the whole change drawer! Well dear… like you said, you still have your wonderful cd collection… now there’s something to be grateful for! I do like Dream Mom’s idea though. Get that music blaring as an alarm whenever anyone touches your car. Good thinking. So you have Mama Mia huh? Do you think I could borrow it? Love you, mom
We live in the big city. Never leave valuables in the car – garage vehicles if possible. (Actually, our city has the highest national auto theft rate, but no one would want to steal our cars. A perk to driving older models with less frills).
But, your post just reminded me that my dh’s car was broken into on the street one time, and his stereo/CD collection was stolen. I think the only thing he was really pissed about was the CDs. So, I’d tell your husband that was your strategy all along. No one will steal your CDs and leave you heartbroken. 😉
I had my car broken into twice in my old neighborhood (I park on the street). One time I was stupid and left an air conditioner in the backseat overnight. The thieves jimmied open the lock and took the ac!
Another time I left an iPod tape player connector thingy hanging out of the stereo (my car is old/crappy enough that it still has a tape player!) and some idiot *smashed my window* and rifled through the glove box, probably looking for an iPod. Nothing was taken but I still felt violated. The cops caught the guy right after it happened for making an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street. HA! The cops came and woke me up at 4am to have me look in his car for any items that were mine. It looked like he almost got away with a TON of stuff! I think he ended up serving a year in jail.
Moral of the story: never leave ANYTHING in your car!!
This is why when I was a very poor college student I always left the car unlocked. If someone wants to steal shit, I figure they might as well take it and not cost me $100 bucks to get the window repaired. This would have been my tape collection, I guess. Funny no one ever stole my Rush, Styx, and Supertramp, now that you mention it 😀
We have a convertible now and the same applies times 100 in that case. No way anything in the car is more valuable than a $1500 roof replacement. In a way I find it more zen to just let go of stuff when you walk away from your unlocked car. Never lost anything, actually. Maybe theives figure a car with barely space for two people isn’t going to have anything else in it.
But it sucks to feel violated and the lights will help with that. You can also get a cheap web-like cam with a memory stick that will go on at the same time and record what’s happening. Or, you can just install a sign nearby that says “Camera is recording activity in this area” and let them wonder where the camera is.
Mean people and robbers suck! You have my sympathy. Take heart, there are lots of nice people and the flood lights will hopefully keep the crummy people away.
Sorry to hear that – my friend had her car broken into while it was locked inside of a repair shop several years ago. The dealer was broken into and then the people broke into the cars that were there for service – you would think they would steal a new car – nope – they did take the Tiffany tape out of her car though!
Also my sister had her car broken into several years ago and they stole her box of tampons! Left her CDs.
It’s that sense of security that is the worst I think. We had a shed in our backyard broken into and our good lawnmower stolen. DS1 was about 9 then. He still double checks the doors at night. Really affected him.
Ugh. That really does stink.
I had my car stolen once. For the first 5 minutes I was in denial. I kept staring at the empty spot thinking that I must have parked it somewhere else.
When we bought a new home, Requirement #1 was an attached garage to actually hold vehicles (not to be used as household storage). Any car we buy from now one HAS to fit in there, just like our current ones do. No more driveway or street parking for us, period!
Our family rule with the cars is that we leave NOTHING in them. Not a notebook, not a pair of sunglasses, not loose change, not a chea kid meal toy form Sonic, nothing. Even our stereos are welded to the car frames. Because every time a thief gets anything from a vehicle, its like feeding a begging dog scraps from the table: it heavily reinforces the behavior and convinces them that if they just keep at it, they will get something.
So we make darned sure they…thieves and our dogs… don’t get it from us!
Ugh! How awful for you. Mean people suck.
The passenger window to my car was smashed twice in 3 years, while parked underground in a supposedly secure garage. The first time – the thief took a small pewter angel that hung from the rear view mirror. Value? Maybe $10. A gift from my Mom. Cost to replace the window? $312. Deductible? $300.
The second time – the thief got nothing. And they left my music collection behind, too. Bastard.
I feel so bad for you. I was broken into 3 times in my last home and we had someone break into my car in the current place we live. And we don’t live in a scary place. You feel totally violated that someone was after your stuff. It does stick with you. When my car got broken into they stole my sirius, left the cds and stole a pair of knock-off sunglasses.
So sorry to hear about the theft. It really makes you feel unsafe. I did laugh about the cds. I’m afraid I do agree with your husband. 🙂
http://40daysof.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/my-breakfast-room-is-famous-again/
Okay, you take a terrible situation and make me laugh so much because of the “CD collection from hell.” ha, ha I think the flood lights are a great idea and hope the low life stays away in the future.
So sorry about the break in. Glad to see you can still have a great sense of humor about it all, though. That’s a gift, in itself, that no one can steal! 🙂
There are way too many cats in my neighborhood to leave a window open!
Very bad news to hear. Good thing you’re smart and didn’t leave anything very valuable inside, other than your awesome music collection. Next time you’re driving around, play your music loudly and proudly!!
So sorry this happened to you…I know what it’s like, my same car broken into four times and stolen once (recovered)!
I just hope it comes back to them…ten fold.
Many years ago, I was living at my mom’s. One night, her car was broken into. I had left my credit card in there so I went inside to cancel it and inform the company that it was stolen.
While I was on the phone, my sister spotted someone walking down the street with my mom’s purse. My sister is 5’1″ and weighs about 100lbs. But that didn’t stop her from deciding to chase this guy down. She chased him in a big circle until she finally tackled him in our back yard. She hit him hard enough that you could see the imprint of his arm in a metal case he has stolen from someone else.
Then my 4’7″ mother and my sister held the guy in the back yard (I come from small stock… don’t laugh)… while I was on the phone in the house. Finally I walked slowly to the back yard to see what they were yelling about. What a sight that was… they had that 19 year old punk completely shamed. My mom was asking him, “What if my daughter had a gun?”
“I wish she had a gun so I wouldn’t have to tell this story to anyone.”
The cops showed up only after I called them (again) and told them that we had the guy in my yard. My mother held the guy the entire time (just holding his shirt) until the cops came… when he saw the lights he tried to run. At that point, I threw my 200lb frame on top of him and that put an end to it.
The sad thing is… everyone heard the story as the cops walked up to find me holding the guy down… I had to explain it was my little sister who did the dirty work. And I got to tell that story 20 times, as each of our neighbors came to our front yard to look at the stuff found on the guy to claim their property.
I swear, nothing gets that guy down! You’re very blessed : )
What a drag that someone got into your car!! So sorry they didn’t like your taste in music : ( I guess that’s a good thing : )