There was this time in December 2000 that my family was eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and had parked in an underground parking lot. While we were eating, someone broke into the van and stole all our stuff. Among the items stolen were:
[ul]
[li]Bibles[/li][li]wallets with personal ID, library cards, money, etc. in them[/li][li]library books (both from the public library and the university library)[/li][li]binders[/li][li]various other books[/li][/ul]
Luckily, we got it back, because the people that stole these items were apparently just looking for money. Our stuff was dumped in back of a store, and there were church bulletins in among the bags. A store employee saw our stuff, found the church bulletins and phoned the church. So my parents got a phone call from the church clerk, saying that our stuff had been found.
Other than that, a bunch of money that people said they’d pay back, but didn’t.
Leechboy stole my heart a while ago and still hasn’t given it back - he did however give me his in exchange
Weirdest thing stolen:
When I worked at a doctor’s surgery we had a first aid kit with all its bits and bob’s tacked up on a display board. Someone stole the condom - they did leave us the thumb tack that was stuck through it though!
When I was in college I had a bicycle stolen out of my garage. I had been in an awful hurry that morning and accidentally left the garage door up. There was nothing else of any value in there, fortunately. Oh well, I should learn to be more careful, right?
A few months (and one new bicycle) later I decided to get rid of the garage. It was an extra monthly charge on my rent. Remembering the previous theft, I was left with a problem. This apartment complex had NO good place to lock up a bike, and the staircases inside were awfully narrow. I couldn’t easily keep it in the apartment and get it up and down the stairs.
So for the time being I put the back seat of my car down (an old hatchback) and threw the bike in the back. A few days later I got off work, got into my car and thought “something’s not right.” It took me a minute. The bike was gone! It turns out that I had left the front passenger’s side door unlocked while I was at work, and the thief(s) had opened the front passenger door, reached around to the rear door, unlocked it and taken the bike out that way. Through the rear passenger-side door.
Understand now, that A) it was broad daylight, B) it was the middle of a crowded parking lot, and C) that bike was way too big to fit through that door in one piece. I had put it in through the hatch in the back. I checked the hatch and it was still securely locked. Whoever stole it must have opened the door, climbed inside, disassembled the bike, and taken the pieces out. That takes nerve.
I once caught a guy in my car going through my stuff.
I had been at a friend’s, and it was around 3 a.m. when I got ready to leave. I walked down the sidewalk to my car and put my hand on the handle. . . and my interior light came on. Before I opened the car door. I could see that there was a guy inside my car, but I couldn’t see his face. He opened the passenger door and jumped out right about the time I jerked the driver’s door open and started screaming at him to get out.
My wallet was in the car, and that’s the only thing he took. (He was flipping through my cd case when I got to the car - a picky thief.) He ended up making off with all of my credit cards, a full book of checks, social security card and so on. He was caught and I ended up getting it all back.
To follow up - I bought a new moped last month, yesterday that one was stolen too. I’m beginning to suspect some conspirancy to make me walk and get more exercise…
All my rings (including both irreplaceable antiques from my grandparents and cheapo fake ones), but NOT any of the other, far more valuable jewelry in the same jewelry box
My guitar (major bummer!)
My boom box
My telephone (I had to go to a pay phone to call the cops)
Also:
My laundry quarters
A roll of toilet paper
All my condoms (and may I say that I couldn’t have discovered that loss at a worse moment! Thank God for the White Hen downstairs!)
In a separate incident: my first real grownup bike, which I’m still bummed about (that sucker was a solid piece of machinery!)
Oops; forgot about the car burglary, a month or so after I bought the brand-new car! They got my sungalsses from the dash, and my gym bag, which contained a mildewed towel and bathing suit. It cost me $150 to replace the broken window, though.
I would like to add something I did about 15 years ago. I did my deed the Friday after Thanksgiving, the first day of the Christmas shopping season. The newspaper that morning had a story warning folks not to leave presents in cars while Christmas shopping. Later while cleaning up dog poop from the yard, I had a brainstorm. I took a good pound of the poop and placed it in a ziplock bag. Then another ziplock bag. I wrapped that in newpaper and placed all into a shoebox. I added some potpourri just in case. The box was then neatly wrapped, and a card was included. The card was signed Tacoma Police Department, were coming to get you!!!
That afternoon I took my mother shopping at the Tacoma Mall. The place was packed but I go lucky and found a parking place up front. I took the gift, which was now inside of a JC Penney bag, and left it on the trunk of my car. My mother went into the Mall and I waited near an entrance to a Sears. About 10 minutes later a young man walked by my car and noticed the gift. I saw him look around, and not seeing anybody, he grabbed it and walked to his car. From my vantage point I could see him in the car. Sure enough, he opened the gift, he even got a big grin on his face when he saw the Nike box. About 10 seconds later, he rolled down his window and through everything out. I gave him a wave and a big smile as he drove by. He did not look pleased.
In November, 2000 my car’s driver side window was smashed in, and the CD stereo within was removed. Insurance paid for the window and a new stereo, which has a removable faceplate. I am religious about taking the faceplate off everytime I park the car, for the previous stereo also had a removable faceplate and I was pretty casual about taking it off.
I used to live in Frankfurt/Main and Berlin, 2 of the most dangerous cities in Germany. Yet nothing ever happened to me and nothing was stolen.
When I was at a college of hotel management in a small town in Bavaria, some idiot stole my favourite Nike sweatshirt from the laundry room. It was a boarding school, so the a**hole couldn’t even wear it.
Now I live in a smallish town near Cologne and some S.O.B. stole my brandnew full-suspension mountainbike which was locked right in front of my house. Grrr!
