I was the first person in the house to wake up Sunday morning, and I woke up with IHOP on my mind. “Get dressed!” I ordered Mason, Morgan and Susan as they shuffled out of their beds, one at a time. I was up, dressed, and hungry by 7:30am, but it took everybody else almost an hour to get up and around and get out the door.
As we walked out to the driveway, something caught my eye and I stopped in my tracks. My car door was ajar every so slightly — maybe only half an inch or so — but I instantly knew what it meant. Someone had been in my truck.
“Son of a …” I said. Susan shot me a look and glanced at the kids before I could get the last word out. I lock my truck EVERY – SINGLE – DAY, but on Saturday I went to Lowe’s to pick up some wood and I guess with all the shuffling and carrying of stuff, I forgot to lock the truck door this one time.
Upon opening the door, my heart sunk a little when saw what I expected to see. My GPS was gone, as was my little Wal-Mart FM transmitter. My center console was flipped open and it had been rifled through. If they got anything out of there, I wouldn’t know it.
I haven’t completely emptied my truck out from the last trip, so I still had a bunch of CDs, power adapters and my new power converter sitting out in the truck. They left all of those things behind. I guess even thieves aren’t interested in real CDs anymore, not when you can pick them up at pawn shops for 3, 4, or 5 for $10. They left behind all of my spare change, too. Apparently they just grabbed the GPS, my little FM transmitter, and shut the truck’s doors just enough to turn off of the interior light, but not hard enough for us to us to hear it inside the house.
That little discovery left me grumpy for an hour or so, especially considering the weekend after next I’m going on another road trip and will need a GPS. This morning I got on TigerDirect and ordered a couple of things: a replacement GPS, and a four camera home security system … we’ll see how that goes.
It could be worse. You could be sitting in a corner booth of IHOP when I car comes through the wall. All things in perspective!
Mom
UGH… no good! Let me know how you like that camera security system, not a bad idea to have!
Is there a way to track your gps unit when it’s in use? I had the same thing happen a few years ago but the thieves left the doors open when they were done. They got a couple inactive cell phones and that was about it….
Rob, I just sold that Linksys wireless webcam server thing on ebay for $50 if they dont send the money you might wanna use it. it emails you the mpeg when a motion detector sets off.
Someone broke into my car one day, though I still can’t figure out how.
I found out the same way you did, but didn’t realize it at first. I hit my remote to deactivate the alarm, got in, and saw the stuff I stored underneath the passenger seat moved out onto the floor.
Then I realized that my door wasn’t closed all of the way, and some finger prints on my stereo.
I am extremely OCD about locking things, and I know the alarm was armed when I left it. I always hit lock on the remote, check the handle, then make sure the alarm LED is active.
The alarm never triggered as it only beeped twice on unlock (vs 4 if it was triggered). How they bypassed it, I’m at total loss.
I don’t think anything was stolen though, and I’m kind of lucky since I had a *really* nice stereo in there. The deck had a motorized reversing faceplate though, so it looks like an empty cover if you’re stupid enough not to notice the massive speakers mounted in the doors.
Despite being lucky, I still felt horribly violated. That was *MY* space.
I’m thinking about a security system as well. I just got our landline activated for an alarm, but if the security system is affordable it would be nice to have that too.