Trunks Trunks Trunks Trunks marching up and down again…
Denny is correct, I was translating to 'Merkin.
I will however still be calling a vest a waistcoat, and we don’t have bonneties terrorising the neighbourbonnet.
Identity theft is scary. I had a friend who left her car unlocked at the gas station to run in and pay real quick and it was gone by the time she came out. They found the car not even a block away, not damaged, nothing stolen but the wallet. Her purse was still in the car, they just took all of her ID’s and Social Security card. Ten years ago everyone was afraid that their car stereo would be stolen during the night but there’s a whole new class of thieves out there now.
They had a public service announcement on the television recently about this sort of thing. They even had surveilance footage from a gas station lot camera showing a woman getting out of her car, facing the pump to pay and in a matter of five to ten seconds a car pulled up adjacent to hers, got out of the car and squatted low, opened her passenger door, took her purse and drove away… all without her even noticing it and she was less than ten feet away. It’s scary to think someone could be that bold.
I don’t think theft is scary. I think it’s what happens, so you have to be on the watch for it. It’s only scary if you think it’s an anomoly and not a part of life. That’s why I shred my reciepts and bills etc.
Thanks for that explanation Martin. I feel better.
After reading this far, I am once again thankful that I was plopped on this earth where I am. Yeah, we may not have lots of stuff, but we also don’t have to lock our doors… and that’s an even trade for me.
OK, yeah, we probably should have hidden the purse better. I guess under the front seat wasn’t hidden enough. Thanks for that uber-obvious piece of folk wisdom. I could have done without that one.
But I have reason to believe that I may have been seen walking to the car carrying the purse, and seen coming back without it.
And yes, we still have what really matters – “stuff” notwithstanding.
However, the one thing that was taken, and is unfortunately irreplaceable, is my [perhaps naive] trust in human nature. Some part of me wants to believe that the purse was stolen by some poor starving homeless person just trying to feed his family; but the real likelihood is that it was a junkie who is probably higher than he’s been in weeks, having scored perhaps $500 in this particular smash-and-grab.
Again, this is perhaps inadvisable, but I’m going to contact the hotel management, and see what sort of reparations can be made. Granted, there was a clear sign indicating the hotel is “not responsible for damage to vehicles or their contents”, but I don’t believe that constitutes any legal contract. We got screwed out of the money, bank costs for cancelling checks, an extra hotel night in a hotel we didn’t want to stay in, $200 window replacement, and some non-determinable figure of “pain and suffering”. What I think bugs me the most is that no one in the hotel management office made any attempt to even apologize for the event, offer us a reduced room rate (they were going to charge us the “walk in” rate for the extra night! But my wife got them to charge us the reserved rate), or even make any mention of the event to us. The young guys at the front desk were hightly sympathetic, but that was about it.
Suffice it to say that that hotel isn’t going to get a rave review from us on the travel sites out there. Perhaps I can hold that as a card to play when I write my letter to the hotel corp, and management.
Sorry for the rant, but I’m still rather pi**ed about the whole thing, though I’m not letting it ruin my vacation.
Neither do I – at home. Which is where I wasn’t. Live and learn, I guess. Trust no one, and look over your shoulder all the time.
And die about 15 years earlier than I would otherwise.
No thanks. I’ll stay in my quiet little town, thank you very much.
When I use to show dogs I traveled sometimes with a friend who was much more “worldly wise” than myself because she had always lived in cities. She was constantly warning me of something I’d done that was not street smart.
Fyffer, good luck on getting anything back from the hotel. A few years ago a bunch of us were at a hotel that, to make a long story short, authorised the use of tear gas at 2 AM to evict a non paying customer.
Unfortunately, they didn’t tell the rest of us on that floor that they were going to do this. 
In the weeks that followed, all of us basically got the same reaction from the hotel; “Sh!t happens..too bad.”
Needless to say, we never stayed there again.
Victims of crime are definitely traumatized. I tried to find some information about burglary trauma but I only found little abstracts of journal articles, nothing really helpful other than that people are studying the effects of burglary on its victims. I would think it was very strange if you weren’t still really angry about it and feeling many other emotions as well. It never seems to be good to keep everything bottled up inside so my guess is that ranting is really good for you. Keep it up. There’s no need to apologize.
That’s quite likely, Ffyffer, when in a city you, your car and your house are vulnerable to being watched and “cased”. Like Flyingcursor, I shred receipts before disposal. Recently I bought an expensive new piece of electronic equipment, and I will dispose of the box carefully so as not to advertise the fact.
It’s not a nice feeling, but there are always dishonest people about, and in a city you’re packed in close so you’re more likely to brush up against this sort of thing.
I’ve lived in London all my life, so taking certain precautions against crime are second nature. Don’t walk the streets with desirable items like cellphones or mp3 players on display. Watch you bag in any crowd, and especially on public transport. Be alert. Don’t leave valuable stuff on your desk at work - there are thieves everywhere.
If practical, put stuff in the car’s trunk (boot 
) beforehand. Breaking into a trunk isn’t nearly as common, but it’s been known to be done if you’re observed putting stuff in after arrival at a destination. Left-behind gym bags, purses, cases, grocery bags, what have you, are all incentives for a break-in if they’re seeable or noted. Parking in open, heavily trafficked locales is usually a plus for the driver. Parking ramps, not so much, so it pays to consider strategy in forestalling break-ins.
I never worried about my ITM CDs lying in the open, and was proved right. 