Stories about car break-ins are piling up. Here's a good one from Jeanne Hegarty, which she told me I could post:

When I bought my last car, I picked out the ugliest, most undesirable car I could find with the above subject foremost on my mind. I got an obnoxious blue, 5 speed station wagon.  I mean, come on! – who would mess with that, right?????  Well, lots of people – it turns out.  It was stolen from in front of my house when it was only a month old. They found it two weeks later abandoned on MLK Boulevard, in the center lane no less, with all four doors open.  Seems they stripped the steering wheel and must have lost power and everyone bailed.  To add insult to injury, I think my brand new car participated in some illegal activities – in just two weeks they had put over 3,000 miles on it.  Plus, it was trashed.

Sadly, this was an ominous beginning of what was yet to come for the life of my car. As a city veteran, I have never kept ANYTHING in my car.  Well, empty Diet Pepsi bottles and cans…but that’s about it. So, the advice ‘not to keep anything in your car’ is a nice sentiment, but not when you’re dealing with junkies. My car got broken into so routinely that I stopped locking it completely. If someone wanted my empty Diet Pepsi bottles – more power to them. You just kind of resign yourself that car break-ins are a fact of life in the city. What got me really irritated is, once after a break-in (yes, they broke the window and the damn thing was unlocked) I had covered the door with a plastic bag and duct tape because I couldn’t afford to get it fixed right away. About two days later I came outside to get in my car and some idiot broke the window on the other side of the car!!!!!!! So, now we’re dealing with LAZY junkies. Nice.  Real nice.

But, the best was yet to come. One morning I came out of my house and noticed that there were a lot of Diet Pepsi bottles on the ground around my car. I thought, “Oh, great.  Yet another junkie went through my car.” But, as I got closer, I noticed something was different. The person was STILL in my car!!!!! Seat all the way back, all four doors locked … and the person was asleep, dead or passed out. Try to figure out what to tell 911 on that when you call in. So, I simply stated that there was a person who was ‘passed out, asleep…or (gross) dead in my car.’ I had to repeat it several times. Well, they sent EVERYONE. When they finally got the guy out they kind of talked me out of pressing charges, because “he didn’t really do anything” and would be back on the street ‘in no time.’  

Now, all of this is about 8 years ago. My most recent car has only (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) been broken into twice.   But, when I first moved into my house 20 years ago and my car got broken into, a nice officer came out and consoled me and wrote out a report.  They no longer do this.  When I called the last time, they ask if there was anything of value, and then gave me a claim number for insurance purposes.  Then again, with the amount of calls they receive for car break-ins I guess it wouldn’t be humanly possible for them to get to everyone.

I ‘heart’ city life!!!!!!