Vandalized

Yesterday, I had this nagging feeling that my car had been stolen. I can't explain it, but it was the same feeling I had a couple of years ago when my bike was stolen from the locked bike room in my apartment building - something just felt wrong, but I wrote it off as guilt from not having used the bike enough - and sure enough, the next time I went to use it, there was no bike. So this morning time I ducked out into the alley where I park and my car was still there. So I figured - hey, you're just being paranoid.

But then this afternoon, all set to use it for what it's good for - some errands and a swing by a museum on a rainy day, I got around the drivers side and up-close realized what my sleep-addled brain either overlooked or what wasn't there before - the rear side window was completely smashed in, with broken glass all over the trunk.

Well, shit.

I'm pretty sure they didn't take anything - at the most, a box full of old tapes is missing - but I may have left that in Cleveland anyway. . . they didn't even take the ice-scrapers on the other side of the trunk. It was this kind of half-window by the trunk - really, the least useful of all the windows in my car to break, since it doesn't ease access to the door or - as I just said, anything useful.

So then I called the cops - starting with the non-emergency number since, no one was hurt and nothing was burning and I wasn't sure if my out of town number would work with 911 anyway. Except that the non-emergency number connects you to a switchboard where you can press 1 for sanitation and 2 for the DMV but can only talk to the operator about the police who, apparently, will not return calls to out of town area codes. So she gave me the number for the precinct - and I called it, and talked to someone who told me that he couldn't take the report over the phone and I would have to call 911 or walk down to the station. So, remembering the bike incident, where I walked down to the station and then was told to go home and wait because they would have to inspect the break-in part, I explained the out of town thing and he gave me a nice little lecture about how I need a landline. At this point, I kind of started to lose my composure. And then he asked if I had tried 911. I hadn't. So I did. And it worked (alhamdulillah). And I made the report and they said someone would call me - AT MY OUT OF TOWN AREA CODED NUMBER.. . . sometime in the next two hours. But only 10 minutes passed, so that was pretty good. And I got the report #, so I had everything I needed for my brief, and apparently very efficient (though I won't be able to verify that until the glass is replaced tomorrow - inshallah) exchange with my insurance company, the special glass insurance people and the glass replacement company they connected me with.

Less satisfying - talking to the voicemail of the guy I rent the parking space from - I'm a little curious if my car was targeted because someone thought the stupid chain that "protects" the space was overkill or paranoia. Or if they tried to unlock the busted up old lock and were so annoyed that they wanted to smash something. Because I feel that way every other time I try to relock it.