Random Acts of Violence

Marty and I went to New Hampshire, and then, probably against better judgment, drove rather than taking the train into Brooklyn, NY to see our son. We stayed at what seemed like a good location right on the ocean near Coney Island Avenue. But, the night before we left, our car was vandalized and the driver side window glass shattered and the door dented with a rock left by the vandals. Four other cars parked nearby were also vandalized. Fortunately, we had our valuables like cameras, laptop, etc. with us in the hotel room.

The vandals rifled through everything, and left some blood on the leather seat and in the glove box, probably from broken glass cuts. There is a change holder in the divider between the front seats. They took all the quarters (good for laundry machines, I guess), but left the dimes and nickels. They took an investment guide left by Marty in the back seat, but passed on his small iPod in the holder on the dash (too old a model. I'm guessing). A Lincoln Continental next to us, bearing a Lojack steering wheel lock and a perimeter alarm, fared no better---driver side glass was also shattered. The police who came to write up a report called it "criminal mischief"--I suppose that is a technical term.

We were lucky in some ways. A vehicle in the same vicinity had been stolen the day before, and we hadn't left anything of value in our car (except our passports, by accident, which were in a backpack in the trunk--but they didn't take those though for a scary few minutes we had trouble finding Marty's). Our ride back to Detroit was tiring and noisy from the wind, considering that we had to tape the window up with a clear garbage bag and duct tape. But we were lucky to find a very nice young guy at the nearby Ford dealership who helped by cleaning up the broken glass and taping up the garbage bag, and the weather on the way back mostly cooperated--it could have been a lot colder. Even luckier, we had just the week before leased a second car, so we aren't totally without wheels while this one is being fixed.

There is nothing else to say about this except that "s---t happens." And---it's stupid to take a car into New York City. Or maybe I mean foollish--stupid would be doing it twice.