Two Bricks Does the Job

I promised I would post the story of my car getting broke into. A couple of weeks ago, I head into work like normal and park in the "50 Cent Lot", downtown Houston, at 7:30AM. At 8:50AM I get a call from my car insurance agent asking if I put a claim on my car for broken glass. I said no, he must be mistaken, I haven't had an accident. He explained that he got a call from a deputy about some broken glass, but wasn't sure if he was confused. I told him I hadn't been in an accident and everything was fine. At 9AM, I get a call on my office phone from a deputy who explains that someone broke into my car and they have the suspect in custody. He was frustrated because it took an hour for him to get a hold of me. He talked to my insurance agent and the car dealership where I bought the car to get my number. I was shocked; who breaks into a car at 8AM, there is usually plenty of action in a big open parking lot at that time. I was also impressed that the police had so effectively caught the guy. The deputy asks me to come out to the lot, so he can see my driver's license, etc.

The scene of the crime showed deep scar marks on my rear right window (the glass needed to be replaced) and a shattered back window. Apparently it's pretty hard to break a side window with a normal size brick, because it was clear the suspect had thrown the brick several times with no real success. I couldn't help but laugh when I tried to visualize the act. Inside the car were two bricks, one that hit the console/stick shift and landed in the passengers floor, and one in the back seat. They caused a couple scars in the plastic up front and a small tear in my rear seat. To top off the story, I haven't owned this car long and felt so blessed to own a nicer newer car with no defects...so much for that. In addition, I dropped my full coverage insurance about two months earlier, so damages had to be paid out of pocket.

I couldn't help but ask the deputy, how they caught this guy. "Well, he broke your windows and walked across the street to that shop and turned himself in. He just got out of jail and wanted to go back," said the deputy. I couldn't help but feel sorry for this guy sitting in the back of the cop car. You must have a pretty sad life, when you have no one to see and nothing to do outside of jail. Apparently he did the same thing a year ago when he got out of jail. He doesn't steal anything, just vandalizes and turns himself in. The deputy planned to talk with the judge to see if they can get the charges increased this time.

Oh what a headache its been. First I had to locate some gloves and throw the glass away before I could drive to the auto glass place. When I got up to 60 mph on the freeway I experienced a backdraft whirlwind, blowing tiny pieces of glass into my hair eyes and defrost vents. The autoglass guys did a nice job matching the tint on the windows, but messed up all my power locks and power windows, claiming they did not do it, and there was no way I could prove they did it. It was true, my argument that the locks and windows worked when I dropped the car off and didn't work when I picked it up, couldn't be proven. We got in a big fight and I left with no fix.

The good news is, the glass was only $100 dollars more than my deductible would have been, had I owned full coverage insurance. The bad news is, I could have gotten a substantial payout if I had it, because of the torn seat, scarred plastic, and scratch on the door.

I'm mostly glad it was such a small act of vandalism. My friend got his wallet stolen a few months ago, when he was running a marathon. That would be a much bigger headache. I feel blessed.