My Car Was Stolen

Saturday night my husband went outside at around 11:00 to get something out of our 1996 Acura Integra and came back in in a panic.
"Where did you park the car?"

I said, "Which car?"

"The Acura."

"Across the street."

"It's not there."

"What do you mean?"

"It's gone!"

Wow, just like that our poor little sun damaged, dirty, 101,000 mile paid off car was stolen, from in front of our house. I said, "I have to work in the morning, I can't take this right now, can you call the cops?" "Of course, go to bed."

I worked on Sunday at the hospital, everyone is so sweet and supportive. My supervisor is going to India in January for another 6 months, and said we could use his car while he is away. We're ok, my parents have 3 cars and let us borrow the Mercedes. However, I was despondent all day. My poor husband took it much harder. He didn't sleep, texted about 30 people between the hours of 1 and 2am. It was actually his car, and he is the one who paid it off.

Whoever works the longest hours takes the Acura and whoever is carting the baby to and from school, or just hanging out uses the 2004 Toyota Matrix, with it's carseat, car alarm, backseat DVD player, all the bells and whistles. The cops said the Acura was targeted because it's the only car on the block without an alarm. You can usually see small blinking blue light in a car with an alarm. I know it was locked, I always lock it. I had just had my gymn bag stolen from it a few months ago, and the car was locked when I opened the door that time looking for it.

We live in a nice neighborhood, nowhere near the ghetto, on a cul de sac with neighbors who all know each other and wave at each other, converse when gardening, etc.

So while trying to process what this means for us, my husband and i go through, "What else was in the car?" My Versace sunglasses I just bought, the only "bling" I wear except for my modest wedding ring. That bugs. I splurged because sunglasses are really important to me. I am photosensitive, and the shape was great. I don't buy things for myself but maybe once a year, and it's hard to find glasses that fit my face.

My husband realized he had left a leather portfolio, one he keeps credit and debit cards reserved for emergencies. He had a business meeting with an art gallery owner who was asking him to cater an event. So, frantically I called the companies, and had everything shut down.

Then I remembered that only a couple of months ago I had everything important in that car, in the trunk. We moved in April, and it took me forever to go through boxes of junk mail, insurance policies, credit reports, you name it, it was there. My father in law had passed away. We lived with him. When he died we all realized how much debt he had, how stretched the budget was, and that he had a measly $50,000 life insurance policy. My mother in law spent months looking for important documents, and eventually the house foreclosed, and now she lives in Norco with a friend who breeds pugs and trains horses. She is happy there, but she lives on like $600/month social security.

I became obsessed with protecting my family. I spent months working out insurances, canceling and changing various policies, etc. I bought a safe, and a portfolio where I have all of our birth certificates, social security cards, insurance policy papers, etc. I was carting all of this stuff back and forth between home and work for a while, working on it in both places, so I left it in the trunk, for like 4 months. When my gymn bag got stolen, I got scared, and took it all out.

So, I am grateful it was just a car. I am blessed to have support in my life. No big deal, right? Yet now I recall a time a few years back when I saw a body in my dad's car at night, and it lowered itself when it became aware of me. I told my dad. My parents had taken pity on a little drug addict from the street who came to their church to find Jesus, and gave her a job. She ended up robbing us of my dad's computer. Our house isn't the most secure. It has an atrium, and she and her friends were able to climb the front wall and jump right into the atrium in the middle of the house. My parents had some wrought iron and glass fill put in to cover that gap from the wall to the roof. Still, the front door is glass, and even though it is in a wrought iron framework, a person could easily break it and reach a hand in to unlock the door. I am trying to convince them to invest in an alarm system.

My gym bag was stolen. So now what is bothering me most is the thought that someone is watching us, knows our comings and goings, knows that I have a little girl, etc, etc. I am not sure if it is the same person/ people preying on us, but it sure seems odd, especially when the cops say that there is virtually no crime activity on our street, and none of our neighbors have these experiences.

It is sad when someone like me who loves people, who takes pity on criminals, and wants to create peace in the world is having to constantly be aware, prepared and ready to be attacked, violated and possibly disabled, kidnapped or killed. While I love my world, I am constantly being reminded that anything can happen and to be very careful of who I choose to trust.

Also, I can't afford another car payment, and this is also bringing to mind all of the nagging little negligences in regards to my money and budget I am guilty of, which have gradually increased since I discovered ProU. Reality always has its way of sucking me right back into it, slapping me around and telling me to "Wake Up!"