Petty Crime

I received a notice in the mail that my car's registration was due. It costs an extra dollar processing fee to cut a check so I went to do it online and there was a problem. I quickly figured out that the website recognized a different title number than the invoice I received, since we recently purchased the car from the dealership. I had a hard time locating the registration with the current title number and it kept me up. I decided to check the car again to see if I could find it. It was after midnight when I stepped outside. I saw things stirred up in my car. I did not remember moving around everything. It was not until I realized the trunk was opened that I knew for sure someone had been into my car. All my CDs were left, as well as other items like gloves, eyeglasses, and sunglasses. I let Lisa know, grabbed her keys and checked her car. Nothing was disturbed in her car. I suspected that when I hurried inside with groceries that evening I must have not locked my car. I believe a dollar or two was taken, as well as a few nickels and perhaps a quarter. Lisa made me come inside and after she alerted me to the notion the thief could still be about the neighborhood I decided to call the police. I was a but surprised they took it so seriously. They dusted for fingerprints on the car and my CD cases, which unfortunately did not turn up anything. They had four cars cruising the neighborhood and asked me to identify the timeframe it could have happened. We were home the entire evening, but I was the last one upstairs at 8:30 and outside again at 12:30. It was hard to get back to sleep after the police left, just felt violated and uneasy that someone could do something like that while we were home and nearby.

The next morning I decided to let our neighbors know about what had happened, to remind everyone to lock their car doors and not leave valuables in them. I spoke with people from five homes and three of them also had cars ransacked. The trend in every case was an unlocked door. No items of any value were taken, but there were no items of value in any of the cars.

The officer said the thief probably wanted to get an iPod, GPS device, or laptop. Instead they risked entering four cars on our street and came away with less than $5. Petty crime.