by Flack » Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:34 am
I've never had my home or apartment broken into, which is amazing seeing as how I lived in some pretty sketchy places when I was younger. The closest was when I lived in El Reno and we had homeless people living in our shed. I had a motorcycle parked out there and they never touched it. The only thing they did was huff all my spray paint that I had out there. Other than that, they picked up a bunch of trash around the shed and cleaned up stacks of stuff I had on the floor so they would have room to sleep. I may be the only person who has had homeless people living in his shed actually raise his property value.
When it comes to car break-ins, I've had a few.
The first was when I worked at Pizza Inn. Our store was in a sketchy part of town and our buildings (and bathrooms) were always being covered in gang graffiti. I was driving a Ford Festiva at the time and had removed the rear seats so I could cram even more speakers into an already small car. I had subwoofers, mids, 6x9s, and whatever else was on sale at the fleamarket crammed into the back of that thing. I had also hawked my original NES at a pawn shop to purchase an alarm for the car that never quite worked right.
I came out of work one night and my initial thought was, "I don't remember parking in all that broken glass!" Then it hit me. When I looked inside, everything was gone: the stereo, the speaker box, the amplifiers, and perhaps most humiliating, the alarm system.
They stole my goddamn car alarm system.
I always suspected another delivery driver was in on the theft, but I never could prove anything.
Then there was "the big one" at my last house. I was living in a decent neighborhood with lots of nice neighbors and even though I still locked my car doors at night I didn't really think twice about what I left in them overnight.
One night I went to a concert after work and didn't get home until midnight. I left my work bag in my Isuzu Rodeo, and parked next to it was my Geo Tracker which was doubling as a car stereo competition vehicle. I came outside the next morning at 6am and instantly knew what had happened.
Let's see. In the Tracker alone I was out about $3k in stereo equipment, not to mention they broke the console ripping out the stereo, the glove compartment door, and a window. From the Rodeo they stole my laptop bag from work. The bag contained a bunch of expensive things I owned (everything from my Palm Pilot to an external CD-Rom burner that I had just paid $500 for) to my work laptop. If you ever want to know the definition of "paperwork," try getting a government laptop stolen.
I can't remember exactly now, but on both cars I think I had liability insurance so essentially nothing got covered. In fact my car insurance told me that my home owner's insurance might cover the laptop bag and its contents, but they didn't because it was in the driveway and it wasn't connected to the house or the car or something. So yeah, that was all an expensive lesson.
At that same house I also had what I called a GPS tax. Each time I left my car doors unlocked someone would steal my GPS. I forgot to lock my car doors about once a year and each time I did I would come out and my GPS would be gone. The only good part of this was GPS units are relatively cheap and I was able to keep up with the latest technology since I was buying a new one every year.
I've never had my home or apartment broken into, which is amazing seeing as how I lived in some pretty sketchy places when I was younger. The closest was when I lived in El Reno and we had homeless people living in our shed. I had a motorcycle parked out there and they never touched it. The only thing they did was huff all my spray paint that I had out there. Other than that, they picked up a bunch of trash around the shed and cleaned up stacks of stuff I had on the floor so they would have room to sleep. I may be the only person who has had homeless people living in his shed actually raise his property value.
When it comes to car break-ins, I've had a few.
The first was when I worked at Pizza Inn. Our store was in a sketchy part of town and our buildings (and bathrooms) were always being covered in gang graffiti. I was driving a Ford Festiva at the time and had removed the rear seats so I could cram even more speakers into an already small car. I had subwoofers, mids, 6x9s, and whatever else was on sale at the fleamarket crammed into the back of that thing. I had also hawked my original NES at a pawn shop to purchase an alarm for the car that never quite worked right.
I came out of work one night and my initial thought was, "I don't remember parking in all that broken glass!" Then it hit me. When I looked inside, everything was gone: the stereo, the speaker box, the amplifiers, and perhaps most humiliating, the alarm system.
They stole my goddamn car alarm system.
I always suspected another delivery driver was in on the theft, but I never could prove anything.
Then there was "the big one" at my last house. I was living in a decent neighborhood with lots of nice neighbors and even though I still locked my car doors at night I didn't really think twice about what I left in them overnight.
One night I went to a concert after work and didn't get home until midnight. I left my work bag in my Isuzu Rodeo, and parked next to it was my Geo Tracker which was doubling as a car stereo competition vehicle. I came outside the next morning at 6am and instantly knew what had happened.
Let's see. In the Tracker alone I was out about $3k in stereo equipment, not to mention they broke the console ripping out the stereo, the glove compartment door, and a window. From the Rodeo they stole my laptop bag from work. The bag contained a bunch of expensive things I owned (everything from my Palm Pilot to an external CD-Rom burner that I had just paid $500 for) to my work laptop. If you ever want to know the definition of "paperwork," try getting a government laptop stolen.
I can't remember exactly now, but on both cars I think I had liability insurance so essentially nothing got covered. In fact my car insurance told me that my home owner's insurance might cover the laptop bag and its contents, but they didn't because it was in the driveway and it wasn't connected to the house or the car or something. So yeah, that was all an expensive lesson.
At that same house I also had what I called a GPS tax. Each time I left my car doors unlocked someone would steal my GPS. I forgot to lock my car doors about once a year and each time I did I would come out and my GPS would be gone. The only good part of this was GPS units are relatively cheap and I was able to keep up with the latest technology since I was buying a new one every year.