Thieves Get Thirsty Too
Some asshole broke into my Jeep Wrangler this morning.
After getting ready for work, walking to driveway, I saw my Jeep blanket, one I usually keep in the back, tangled in some of the bushes. I opened the passanger door to throw it in the back, and noticed the 12 pack of Diet Sprite I couldn’t carry in last night was on the car seat, ripped open with a few cans missing. That’s when I looked around and saw the contents of the glove box where now on the floor, the sun-visors where flipped down, the ashtray open, and, damnit, my GPS was gone. Further investigation revealed they took my book of CDs (mostly burned copies — a few originals, but those I had already ripped), and some loose change/dollar bills I used to keep in the ashtray to give to homeless people.
The only thing I really feel bad about is the GPS. If you own a Jeep, you own a car where the only thing stopping a criminal from getting into your car is some velcro and a couple of zippers. And that’s assuming you have the top up. You have to expect that you’re going to get broken into and just not leave anything you don’t want to lose in the car.
When I first got my Wrangler, I considered getting a car-alarm, in particular one with an internal motion detector, for when I had the top down. The general advice on the Jeep message boards was not to bother — not with the motion sensor or an alarm at all. In fact, it was recommended not to even lock your glove box or other storage space. The reason being you usually only have cheap just in there, like CDs. And what’s worse, losing $40 dollars in CDs or losing $40 in CDs *AND* paying $200 to repair the damage to the lock some asshole did just to see if, by chance, you had left the Hope Diamond in your car overnight.
Which is why I feel dumb about the GPS. After 3 years, I got lazy and just started leaving it in the car. Oh, I’d unplug it, and put it out of sight, but it was still dumb. It’s an older model, so I can’t see them getting more than $100 for it. Actually, I just checked on Ebay, and it looks like the model I had was going for $50 (and that’s with the software to load the maps, which requires a registration key they don’t have).
All in all, not much lost. I can’t see burned CDs going for anything. A used CD case, is what a few dollars? Soda goes for 3.33 for a 12 pack at Ralphs, so $.56 for the two cans. Add all that with the loose change and the GPS, and their whole take was probably, what, $60? Does $60 even get you much in the way of crack-cocaine?
Apparently they had 2nd thoughts about my Jeep blanket. And who the fuck steals Diet Sprite? Fuckers.
