FUCK! My car's been broken into! FUCK!

The BBQ Pit
1

It woke me up last night, though I had no idea what it was. I came down this morning at 5:30 to make the drive from my parents’ place to work and found that the driver’s side window had been broken out.

Fuck.

I wasn’t too upset. I just figured that I’d have to pay the insurance deductible on the window and maybe my radio. I opened the door up (fuck, there went the prints), looked inside, and remembered I had left my driver’s licence and credit card in the center console wrapped in a $10 bill my mom had given me.

FUCK

Driver’s licence was gone. Credit card was gone. Ten bucks was gone. Strangely enough, my debit card, which looks exactly like a credit card was still there. I picked up my debit card (destroying whatever prints were on it) and put it in my pocket for safe keeping.

I went back inside and woke my dad up - never a pleasant duty, since he’s grouchy as a bear in winter being woken up. Called the police. They said they’d dispatch an officer. That was half an hour ago. Called the card company. They canceled the card without a hesitation or quiver.

I figure I’ll need to take the day off - and we’re in the middle of standardized testing AND the tests are locked up in the supply cabinet in my room AND I’ve got the only key. My dad is saying and doing the exactly wrong thing to help me calm down.

The delay in getting a new credit card is going to screw me, because I’m trying to get a new business set up, and I was counting on ordering inventory with it on Friday. Plus, there’s the thought that my identity is now completely up for grabs for whatever jerkoff wants to pay a little cash to screw my credit record (which I screwed over very nicely six years ago and have been working to rebuild since then).

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!

2

And before anyone smacks me for leaving that little gift wrapped present for my car thief, I know, okay? I never do that. I always carry my card and licence in my pocket, but last night I had to wear a dress to a meeting, and it didn’t have any pockets. I wanted to make a quick getaway this morning without having to remember where I put everything, so I tucked it into the center console. The windows are (were, in the case of the driver’s window) tinted. My guess is it was just a smash and grab (we’re the first ones on the block), and asshole thief person got lucky.

Fuck.

3

I’m sorry to hear that phouka.
Hopefully your quick action in cancelling the credit card alleviates most of the damage…

4

I’ve had my car broken into twice…once in college when someone broke in to steal the cords that connect my portable CD player to my radio (the CD player wasn’t in the car at the time, but the cords were visible). And another time when living in Wicker Park (Chicago), when some folks broke in to steal a pile of CDs I left on the passenger seat.

Lesson learned: Never leave anything visible. I’m guessing they broke in because they saw the $10 bill. Weak, I know. Bastards.

For me the cost of the window was less annoying than the sense of violation I felt. The psychological impact sucked both times…but sounds like you’re doing okay on that end.

Honestly, sometimes it just helps to take a day to deal with all the crap that arises from this inconvenience…

5

Yikes! Well, you’ve taken exactly the right steps … by calling the credit card company immediately you’ve covered your bases there. The thief may have gotten a few charges in before you cancelled, but you can get that taken care of easily enough … if you log into your online account right now and look for any suspicious charges, you should be able to take care of it, IF they haven’t totally locked down the account. If they have, then just call them back at some point when you have the time and ask them to look for the last few charges on the card before it was cancelled.

Get the feeling I’ve been through this with the bank before? Yes, it’s a giant pain in the ass, but it WILL work out OK eventually. Hugs!

6

No smacking going on…but I should have previewed before stating the obvious. Apologies!

7

It really was a smash and grab. My cell phone wasn’t touched, and it was about two inches from the cash. My copy of the extended version of Two Towers wasn’t touched either. Turns out he used a rock from the landscaping just beside the driveway.

I’m much more upset than I thought I would be. I’m not sure why. My guess is the person who did this only saw the cash and just grabbed for that, and happened to pick up my licence and credit card with it. All this trouble for ten measly dollars. Man, I shoulda stood in bed.

8

Make sure you also call the 3 major credit agencies:
Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. All 3 have websites and numbers you can call to do this. Sometimes you can just call one and they will report it to the others for you. This puts a fraud flag on your credit so it is harder for anyone to open new credit under your name. I would also get a copy of your credit report in 3 months and again in 6 months to make sure there is nothing bad there.

I had my credit cards stolen a few years ago but they got my whole wallet, including my birth certificate and social security card (I don’t usually carry them with me but I had recently gotten back from an overseas trip). They also got my checkbook. That was a huge mess but if you take the right steps now you should not be liable to pay for any fraudulent charges. They used my credit cards and my checks but I didn’t have to pay anything besides the fees to get new ID and stuff. Luckily they did not use my info to get new credit cards, but they had everything they needed to do so.

The police report is needed to show your info was stolen but in my experience they will not really be able to help you find out who did it. The only thing the police did in my case was write the report, even when I tracked the charges they made and I thought some of the stores they went to would have them on security cameras. No one really cared, including the stores they defrauded.

Good luck - I know what a creepy feeling it is to know someone out there has your info.

9

It’s too bad you touched the door handle. Otherwise, standard procedure is for the cops to come in, cordon off the area, dust it all down for prints, bring in the dogs, AND bring in a team of forensic specialists, and the writers from C.S.I. who will comb every inch of your car to find any DNA evidence that they will then compare against their database of former car thieves and typically they catch the guy within a couple hours.

Then, they’ll make him give you back the $10, with interest, and make him pay for the broken window.

But you touched the door handle. :smack:

Sure. How many others happened that night?

Let me guess what your grumpy, “say-the-wrong-thing” Dad said. . .

“You thought leaving cash, an ATM card, a credit card and your license on the console was a better idea than bringing it into the house because you didn’t want to try to remember where you put it?”

Or maybe. . .

“Why exactly can’t you make it into work today?” (and he had a hard time taking your answer with a straight face)

10

My condolences. I know how you feel.

I used to live in suburban D.C. and owned a soft top Jeep. I found out this wasn’t a good idea. I’d always been told to leave my doors unlocked because thieves would just cut through the windows with a razor blade to gain entry, so I never locked my doors. I came home from a weekend away (we took my girlfriend’s car) only to find that both of my windows were gone. Vanished into thin air. To add icing to the cake, it had rained all weekend, and the inside of the Jeep was soaked. So I had to pay to replace the windows.

After this, I decided that I was going to lock my doors. About three months later, I came out one summer morning to find that my window had been slashed, and the Jeep had been broken into. This is when I started questioning my own sanity. I had left my CD’s (about 40 of them), my wallet, and my cellphone in the lockbox in the center console. Surely nobody could penetrate that, it was like Fort Knox fer christ’s sake. Wrong. They had busted the lock and stolen everything, they also tried to get into the glove box, but with no avail. It didn’t matter though, because I had to get the lock box, the glove box door, and the slashed window replaced as well as pay retail for a new cell phone. To this day I still wax poetic about my ganked CD’s. Called the police, but all they did was ask me a few questions, and write a report. The jerkoff crooks were never found.

I had to take the day off of work to get my life back in order. I felt like I had been anal raped, and wished for nothing more than for the scumbags to be found. Alas, they weren’t, and I’ve been ultra-paranoid ever since.

11

Mr. Amanita’s car was broken into at his place of work. All that was taken were the coins in the center console and a half-eaten bag of potato chips. He was angriest about the chips. :smiley:

12

So, how’s it look “the day after”? You getting things straightened out? Still feel like you want to find out who did it and go “Kill Bill” on his ass? :cool:

13

We had someone smash the small rear window of our car to steal a crappy 3 year old Sony Discman that plugged into the cigarette lighter. The thing probably had a street value of $5, but it cost $200 to have the window fixed.

The really funny part was that there were at least 10 CDs in the car at the time, but those weren’t taken. I guess the thief didn’t like our taste in music!

14

My car got broken into last year. All they really did was break the locks and stole my dimes for the tollway. Leaving the nickels and quarters, of course. :smack: They were dumb enough to get caught, too.

In a more serious note (though you already know this), I wouldn’t rely much upon the police to do anything in this kind of case. As Trunk more humorously put it, they’re pretty much not going to do anything in this kind of situation. My parents and my fiance have both had cars stolen, and the police did precious little to help. Both the cars were recovered by family members (the first by my grandpa, the second by my father-in-law-to-be), and both the cases are still unsolved. Hollywood aside, the police almost never care unless someone gets hurt.

It’s lucky they didn’t get your debit card. I’d still consider keeping an eye on it, though. Not that I really think the people who broke into your car are THAT intelligent, but if you have one of those debit/credit cards, it’d be really easy to write the vital information down and then go on an internet shopping spree, for which you could theoretically be held totally liable. They don’t seem that smart, but, hey, better safe.

15

I’m sorry that happened to you too. I know how frustrating it is. Look on the bright side: you weren’t raped, mugged, murdered or maimed. Just stolen from. It’s just stuff that can be replaced. You, however, cannot be replaced. That’s what people told me when my purse was snatched right off my arm in the middle of a grocery store parking lot, in a supposedly “safe” part of town. (Lesson Learned: No place is safe at 1 in the morning.)

I had to get into bars with my passport for a while, because I had my whole life in my purse. Lesson Learned #2: Never carry more in my purse than I can recite from memory.

I was up until 3 a.m. cancelling credit card and setting up a completely new checking account. Lesson Learned #3: Don’t carry ALL your credit cards AND your checkbook, all at the same time.

I had to contact the credit agencies because not only did they get my driver’s license, access to every cent in my name, and my address book, they also got my social security card AND my birth certificate (no idea why I carried it around). Lesson Learned #4: okay this one should be obvious… I don’t carry any of that crap around any more. Except my driver’s license. Note: These theives never did set up anything in my name, assume my identity or trash my credit record in any way. I got supremely lucky. I still check on my credit report about once a year, though, just in case.

I also had to get another $8 in quarters because I was about to do laundry that night. That was my only cash in the purse and none of the cards or checks had been used before I got a chance to cancel them. Stupid thieves… all they got was my laundry money! :smiley: Lesson Learned #4: Don’t carry much cash around.

What was I doing at the grocery store at 1 a.m.? I worked 3pm - 12am. I liked to shop after I got off work because there are no lines at the Bi-Lo at 1 a.m. (This was in SC, not in FL.)

I finally recognized the supreme irony of this purse snatching: I was dead center in the Bible Belt, yet had not had a crime perpetrated against me when I lived in downtown Ft. Lauderdale or in all my years of trotting around in downtown Cleveland, Atlanta, Miami, and other cities I’ve visited or lived in. Lesson Learned #5 (and most important one): Just because you’re in a white-bread, suburban environment, you are not safe because you’ve allowed yourself to let your guard down. By being immediately aware at all times of your surroundings, you are much less likely to be purse-snatched or mugged.

There are no guarantees however, so always take steps to protect yourself… even if you’re going out to the car immediately first thing in the morning to collect the stuff you left in the console. Again, my sympathies. This too, shall pass. But not right away. For months, people would ask me for someone’s phone number or something, and I’d respond, “Oh yeah, that’s in my pur…crap!” It took me months to build my address back up. Lesson Learned #6: don’t carry your address book around.

Another Lesson I just thought of: Transcribe all the saved phone numbers from your cell phone and caller ID into a paper address book and do not carry it around. Sort of like a backup copy…

16

Our car didn’t get broken into, but somebody did wreck the lock on the passenger side. It cost us about $100 to get it fixed (new lock, re-keying for lock, and installation). And yeah, it did make me awful damned angry - why should I pay $100 because some little punk-ass kid wants to learn how to break into cars, and practices on mine?

Now that I think about it, I’ve had various car broken into three times on top of the broken lock. I’ve never lost anything, though, because I don’t keep anything in the car. I was lucky the first time, and learned my lesson after it. I didn’t even bother to call the police, because these crimes are virtually never solved.

Just a tip - if you have a garage door opener in the car, don’t leave anything in it with your home address. I worked with a woman once whose car (with opener and registration) got stolen, and she was a nervous wreck worrying about someone breaking into her house with it.

17

I’m suddenly quite glad that I only carry things around in my pockets.

Cody got broken into a few years back. The only thing worth taken was his stereo. The funny thing is, is that it was busted. It had a Nothingface CD stuck, and stuck GOOD, in it. If you tried to open the face to eject the CD, the power went off, so no ejecting could be done. It would’ve been amusing, except his window got busted in the night Texas rainy season started. By the time he could get his window fixed, his car had turned into a swamp.

18

You’re nowhere near as stupid as me. I keep forgetting to lock my car. It’s been gone through TWICE. You’d think once woulda learned me.