My First Brush with Crime

I like living in Saskatoon. I really do. It’s a fairly clean city, decent access everywhere; the traffic isn’t bad except around the after-work rush-hour, and there’s lots to do every weekend if you’re inclined to get out and do stuff.

The only pockmark on its reputation? My car got broken into.

On Thursday night last week, the girlfriend and I went out for a quick drive to the store. I unlocked my car, and noticed that my roadmap, pop bottles and CDs that were in my glove-box and console were strewn about the car.

Jen then says that my passenger-side door is slightly ajar.

Well shit. Evidently my car had been broken into. What was missing? The GPS I’d left in the console.

Whoever had broken into my car was definitely not your average miscreant either. My windows were all fine, and there weren’t any scratch-marks around the door or windows, so use of a slim-jim was probably involved (for those not in the know, it’s a tool made specifically to unlock car-doors). It more than likely took less than 20 seconds to unlock the door, and less than a minute or two to rifle through my front and backseat.

I don’t drive it very often. Maybe three times a week. It’s basically for road-tripping and grocery runs, so it happened between Monday and Thursday sometime. The doors had definitely been locked, as I heard 3/4ths of them open when I hit the button. But, Fie upon me for leaving valuables in my car I suppose, especially in a car that I don’t sit in and drive every day.

I should be thankful that unlike my family members and friends who live in major cities *cough* Winnipeg *cough*, my car windows didn’t get smashed, which is way more expensive than a GPS. I do feel guilty though, as it belonged to my girlfriend.

So how does it feel to have your car broken into for the first time? Extremely unsettling. I felt weirded-out for the rest of the night. I even had crazy dreams about it.

The worst part? It’s theft under $500 from a vehicle; such a small crime that the police wouldn’t even be able to do much about it even if they wanted to. I still have the GPS charger cable, but if that has the serial # of the GPS unit or not, I’m unsure.

So take it from me kids, don’t leave valuables in the car. It may be inconvenient to have to bring your mp3 player, gps, or radar detector into your home every time you leave your vehicle, but it’s way more inconvenient and expensive to have to deal with having these things stolen.