Thievery!

I'm tellin' ya', life's hard here on the south side. Yesterday morning one of our car's alarms suddenly went off. I thought it was one of those in the garage - I'd just tossed my briefcase where I keep both sets of car keys on the kitchen counter and thought that had something to do with it. I fished my keys out, went to the garage to see which one was going, and learned it was neither. Ah, it was Rachel's out in the driveway; my briefcase tossing had nothing to do with anything. Well, her alarm had gotten stuck once at school and likely that's what was going on. I opened the garage door and, sure enough, Rachel's alarm was sounding.

Only one of her back doors was open.

Drat.

Her car had been broken into.

I stepped outside, saw no one on the street, no cars, no evidence anyone had been near her car - the grass was dewy and you'd think there'd've been footprints or something, huh, Sherlock? Rachel's back windows were rolled down - she likes to ride like that when she's tooling around at night - so it was as easy thing for a thief to reach in, unlock the door, give the interior a quick rummage and snatch away whatever could be snatched.

All this time, the alarm was still sounding so I went back inside to Rachel's room to find her key. The alarm had awakened her and I gave her the news. She checked her purse for her iPod - uh oh, not there - and out we went to check things out. By now the alarm had shut off, much to the relief of the rest of the neighborhood, I'm sure, and Rachel pawed through her stuff and confirmed that, yep, they'd gotten her iPod, her adapter and her phone charger.

Well, shoot. A hard lesson learned. Those things can be replaced and there was no damage to the car so we go off easy. Suspects? Mine would include a member of the roofing crews roving the neighborhood since the hail storms but that's because their the newest element around. Who knows, really? Rachel pointed out it couldn't possibly be "kids." What self-respecting kid would be up at 6:30 in the a.m. on a summer morning? Good point.

Note: Rachel's stolen iPod was my old iPod. She'd had another one stolen or misplaced so when I got my iPhone, she got my old classic black iPod. It's foolish to be sentimental about things but the thief took away a little more than just a musical appliance. He took away the small gesture I was able to make for Rachel. (And he also got what is probably the most eclectic list of music he'll ever come across: Rachel's iTunes range from Taylor Swift to world music to heavy metal to Wicked to Glee and all points in between. I hope he's forever puzzled by what he snatched.)