I feel your pain. Someone recently smashed upon my window to steal my goddamn used non-name brand radio. Dumb shit cost me $200 in repairs to steal 35 cents worth of shit. Here is what you do: Find the bastard. Hire a private investigator, dust for prints, interrogate everyone in town, whatever you must. No amount of time or money is excessive; it is well worth it. Once you find him, light him on fire. It will make you feel better.
You know, it probably wouldn’t even be that hard to find the culprit if anyone was actually motivated to do so - it’s a teenage boy who lives in the neighbourhood. Maybe if the police started tracking down and charging the juvenile delinquents who graffiti and smash bus stops all over my neighbourhood, maybe that would discourage them. As it is, I’m pretty sure part of why they do it is because they know no one will ever bother looking for them.
I took it to mean that sullivan8 was saying that it would come back around to the low life scum who broke the glass in the first place, not that the poster had it coming. IMO , of course.
Geez, I hope so. It’s so weirdly written though, it didn’t occur to me to read it any other way. “I’m sure a lot of readers here are sympathetic […] but hey, what goes around comes around.”
Yeah, that’s how I took it too.
Seriously now, why not bring back the public stocks? Guaranteed a few hours in something like that will make punk kids think twice.
How do you know it was a Motherfucker? It is just as likely it was an asshat or a douchenozzle or even a shitstain.
Interesting idea. Catch the idiots who graffiti all over the place, put them in stocks, and have a supply of paint handy. Maybe you don’t even have to spray paint the actual kids - have a board over their heads where citizens can spray paint whatever title they like for the little shitstains (that’s a good one, Octopus).
The stocks are no good without a good public flogging. The kids will think that being put in the stocks for a few hours will give them street cred if you don’t add in some lashes.
You put them in stocks, and make them stand for hours in a bent over uncomfortable position. Or lock them by the feet while sitting on an iron bar.
While we all love the idea of a public flogging, I doubt that it will ever really come back. Public stocks for annoying crimes just might, especially if the Tea Baggers get any real power.
Does making miscreants stand out in a public place with signs stating their crime as punishment count? I think that’s a form of stocks, etc. and can’t say that I think it’s a bad thing.
I can understand pitting over this because it’s a shitty thing to do, but I can’t understand why OP didn’t have insurance to cover it.
The morning after I got married I went out to the car to find that some scumbags had smashed the windshields of all the cars parked along our side of the street.
Nice.
At least it was the wife’s car. My Caddy was in the garage.
Side note: On the way to the reception the day before, the Maid of Honor cracked open a bottle of champagne. The exploding-cork-shot broke my new mother-in-law’s windshield.
Bad weekend for windshields. Funny, though, when we called her mother and blamed her for retaliating.
The OP mentioned calling his insurance company in the morning. Some people might not have the money for that insurance. There’s several tiers of insurance, and I think only top (and most expensive) tier covers things like broken windows, though I’m not sure. And, of course, filing an insurance claim is a quick way to get one’s insurance rates raised.
And even with the best insurance, it’s still a royal PITA to get a window repaired.
Many people pay a lower premium on insurance in exchange for a higher deductible. If the deductible is $500 or even $1,000, then it’s not worth filing a claim for under that amount.
The lowest deductible I remember having was $250.
Hi fellow dopers
The window was fixed, the dealership didn’t check the sloppy clean-up job the glass company did, and I vowed to take my business elsewhere in the future.
My insurance deductible is $500, this cost $200.
It might have been an asswipe, shitstain, or douchnozzle, but I stand by my original motherfucker adjective.
I chose to swallow my pride during the summer and return to the same dealership to have “check engine light work” service. I was working a temp job 3 blocks from the dealer, so I took the car in.
They did OK by me this time, so if I need further work, I may go back to them.
For whatever reason, thanks for the current interest.
*As a postscript to an old comment from ThisSpaceForRent
“You can’t say BANJO without smilin’”…Bob Pinciotti
*
That’s true enough most of the time, but when I get off-stage and put the banjo down, I can get pissed off like anyone else.
A great Thanksgiving to all.
Love
David
This. In a place like Calgary where they put gravel on the roads in winter for traction, I’d estimate that about 50% of the cars on the road right now have cracked windshields (both of our cars currently do - we won’t fix them until spring if at all). Most people here don’t insure their car windows because it costs about the same as a deductible to get them fixed, and as Lynn says, it just makes your insurance go up to claim, and you will claim sooner or later here. On the plus side, since most people don’t insure glass, the auto glass industry is actually more competitive.
My glass insurance is a buck a month. No deductible. Special case on regular insurance. You might want to check to see if that’s true for your insurance, if there’s special ‘glass insurance’. It’s worth every penny.
The thought of having to license and insure a car in Alberta would give anyone nightmares. If I ever had to move to Lloyd I’d live on the crappy Sask side just to avoid having to pay Alberta rates. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your deductible? I’m on a package policy so it’s $100, but without one it’s $700.
You don’t have to remind me about SGI, young lady; I’m from there, remember? I know how screwed-over we are here. 
My deductible is either $500 or $250; the policy isn’t clear. I think I actually have comprehensive insurance because I was required to do so by the bank who held the loan on the car; now that the loan is paid off, I should probably revisit my insurance policy.
E-Sabbath, I would be fall-out-of-my-chair shocked if that kind of policy was available here. Like I said earlier, it’s not a case of “if” you’ll claim for glass; it’s a case of “when.” I can certainly ask when I look into updating my policy, though.