This past weekend was a productive one in the Nerd Clan household. It was our daughter's 11th birthday. My parents came 'round to redecorate her room into one a little more "mature". The bubblegum pink walls were covered in a muted green. Grown-up, floor-length curtains covered the windows. All of the little girl toys went to one of three places: keepsake storage, giveaway box, or the garbage.
Sunday was spent finishing up a few odds and ends, but it was mostly restful and quiet.
Monday started relatively well. The brand-new 11-year-old was staying home with a cold, and Avindair was going to stay home with her.
"We'll snuggle on the couch and watch movies," he said. "It'll be a nice father-daughter day."
In my rush to get ready for work, Avindair offered to let me take his car. The one with the heated front seats.
"It'll be a treat. I'll even run out and get it warmed up for you."
Minutes later he came back in... an edge to his voice."Someone smashed our passenger side window."
Crap.
I threw on my shoes and ran out to the car. It was smashed in, all right. With a blank space on the windshield where our 2-month old portable GPS used to be. Nothing else was touched.
Our insurance company, Geico, was fantastic. One phone call and they made an appointment for a glass company to come out today and fix it in our driveway.
The police came to make a report. It was a little bit of a relief to find out that we weren't alone. Four home in our neighborhood got hit that they knew of so far. No one suspected until this morning. The NerdHound didn't even wake up. Of course, we're so used to the sounds of teenagers roaming the streets at all hours of the night (even though our suburb has a curfew), that I suppose we've become accustomed to a certain level of noise. At least we could take some comfort in the fact that we weren't singled out.
What now? Tony's father-daughter sick day has turned into "fix things and make the house secure" day.
1. An electrician is coming out today to install motion-detection lighting on the garage. We had our lights on, but according to the police, the motion-detection lights are a great deterrent for any future problems.
2. 1-800 Got Junk is coming out to haul away our remodeling refuse so that the cars can go back in the garage.
3. The auto glass place is coming to fix the car window.
One good thing, we were able to provide the police with the serial number for the GPS. If the thieves try to sell it at a pawn shop, we might be able to piss on their day just a little bit, too.
Now all we need to do is put signs around the house reading, "TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT". You think the neighbors will object?
5 comments:
I think the sign should read "Trespassers will be dipped in a moo-latte and fed to the vampires".
But maybe that's just me.
I don't know. I'm thinking a 12-gauge has a much nastier bite.
Just knowing they were only a few feet away from where my children sleep... and no one in the house woke up... has me seriously reconsidering my choices in home protection. I know that Tony or myself could beat the crap out of most intruders - but would we get to the intruder first?
Granted, most of the crimes in the area have been car break-ins. But according to the police, crime is up due to a new crop of meth houses in our surrounding suburbs (and we live in what's considered a very good suburb for the Twin Cities). All we need are meth freaks desperate to get their next hit.
This, combined with the threat of someone driving around our town trying to take kids from school bus stops... just reinforces that no one is truly safe, anywhere, at any age... with these lunatics and thieves on the streets.
I wonder how much safer we'd be if we were protecting our neighborhoods instead of picking through Grandma's handkerchiefs and cough drop wrappers a the airport?
Update:
Thanks to my wonderful husband who is not only staying home with our sick child, but also facilitated all of the repairs and prevention, etc.:
- The car window is repaired - at less than the cost of the car insurance deductible.
- We have a brand-spanking new motion detector light. Unfortunately, the electrician's fee is a bit of highway robbery, but at least we chose to get robbed and got something in return.
- The junk is out of the garage and we can lock both cars in.
- BEWARE CRIMINALS: We now have a security system to catch and prosecute your sorry asses. Touch a window, touch a door, and the whole effin' neighborhood and the police department will know.
How do you like THEM apples?
That totally blows! I'm going to be parking outside all the time starting 12/28 because the new place we bought only has a 1-car garage and all our toys will barely fit inside; let along a car. Fortunately my car is a piece. It screams, "Poverty!"
Who'd want to break into it? If anything, it would incide pity from the would-be vandal. "Poor thing. She drives a 10-year old car with dents and scratches from bumper to fender..."
Just don't leave anything IN the car someone might want! They don't care what they have to break to get to something they can fence.
If anything, it brings our nice neighbors together to watch out for each other even more.
Side note: last night the police were back. Our neighbor found a purse in the bushes by his house. The thieves probably stole it out of someone's car, took the good stuff out and dumped the rest when they hit our place.
SOB's
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