Car Trouble, Oh Yeah

My car was broken into, right in my driveway. This happened, like 2 months ago, so I've dealt with it, but I've been meaning to tell you all the story at some point.

I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner, actually. This is my first break in since moving to LA 4 years ago, and second break in since I've had this particular car (1994). I haven't done too bad. One of my best friends has been living in the slightly swankier enclave of Los Feliz and has had her car broken into 3 or 4 times this year.

I'm in Silverlake, where the neighborhood can be really great or really dodgy, depending on which block you are on. About half the time I park in a garage, as my roommate and I stack park in our driveway. My car is not so fancy... bad paint job, front right turn single generally hanging from its socket, busted sunroof, but ok.

The perp in question snapped off a plastic side panel alng the drivers side window and pushed the window down to get in. Interesting technique, and no glass repair for me! I noticed because one of my best friends had just replaced that panel - it had fallen off and the visible infrastructure was making my friend nuts, so he ordered me the new piece and popped it on himself. This was about a month before the break-in. I walked out to my car that morning and thought, "Heeeeeeeey! We just fixed that! Jeez."

I unlocked the car door and saw a homemade CD sitting on my seat. "OLDIES... ELVIS" it said. Hmmm, curious, because it wasn't mine - but I love Elvis. I thought it was a joke. Someone had somehow slipped the CD through some crack in my car. That's when I noticed the stereo was gone.

Well, it wasn't really. This is where it gets pretty amusing. My car is older, so it was equipped with a cassette deck. This was ok with me, as I had a CD player with an adapter that I'd use most of the time anyway, and I have tons of cassettes from my radio days lying around anyway. The thief took the FACE PLATE of the cassette player. They didn't even bother prying the rest of it out, just took the detachable face. Then they went through my glove compartment (which I keep my registration, proof of insurance, and napkins in) and took the CASE for the face plate. They also took a $5 pair of sunglasses (kept in the car in case of emergency) and a pack of gum.

But best of all was the fact that behind my seat (the car is a two seater) is a compartment that held my CD player, the adapter and a whole mess of CDs. Those were all still there, because they didn't bother checking there, luckily for me.

I was mostly upset about the pack of gum. And the CD was too scratchy to play anyway.