So, in case you don't follow me on facebook, let me set out the entire situation as it occurred.
Thursday night is Girl Scout night around our house. Trina, being a girl scout troop leader, has a box full of paperwork for the Girl Scouts, including contact information, permission slips, money, etc. So, getting home Thursday night, she was suffering from MS fatigue and asked me to make sure I bring in her box. Not a problem, I thought. She made sure to lock it. I went out later to get something for her in the van. I double-checked to make sure it was locked. It was 10 pm.
As I was getting the kids ready to go to school, we walked out of the house to get into my car. It was in the driveway. But then, it wasn't. I walked back into the house, "Where's my car?" It wasn't there. It wasn't parked on the street. It wasn't down the street. It was gone. So the kids have to go to school. We jump in the van real quick and I take them. Meanwhile, my wife calls the sheriff department to report the stolen car.
I get back and decide that I can't go to work that day because we were going to have to take care of a lot of stuff. Sheriff shows up and begins to interview us. The car was in my wife's name so they asked her for her license. It was at this point that we realized that her wallet was in the car still.
So, while the sheriff interviewed my wife, I began calling banks to cancel her card. I call GEICO to report the theft. Of course, we didn't have comprehensive on a 15 year old car bought for $1600 as the cost/benefit analysis proved that was a gamble worth taking (we lost) so they can't help at all. My home insurance couldn't cover anything because we have $1000 deductible there and we didn't lose $1000 worth of stuff.
So, now the list of stuff in the car in order of importance:
1) My wife's wallet and purse
2) All the Girl Scout's information
3) My umpire gear
4) My favorite shirt
5) About $50 in tools
6) My umpire uniforms and hats
7) My Denver Bronco sticker
8) My razor
9) A plug/car charger converter
10) My license plate frame that says, "I'd rather be behind home."
11) About 4 years worth of collecting HeroClix
12) About $2.50 in change
13) Some Axe Deodorant
Well, after going to the DMV to get a new license, cancelling all the bank cards, taking care of what we could, spending $280 to sign the entire family up for LifeLock immediately (since all the kids' social security cards were in my wife's wallet.)
So Friday night we have no idea where the car is. Of course, driving down the street I'm looking at every car driving the other way to see if it was my car. No luck (of course.)
Saturday morning, I take Micah out to his baseball game. Right before it starts, I get a call from the police department saying they found the car. Great! Oh there's bad news. It was burned. I don't know how bad. They give me the phone number for the tow truck company that has the car. I'm able to call them and they would send someone out to look at the car but I couldn't go look unless I wanted to pay the $100 to open the gate or wait until Monday to see it for free (plus all the fees.) We'll wait for Monday.
Sunday is our day to go look at cars. We go to CarMax and figure out that the number we're looking to pay is not going to be possible. So we figure out that we are going to need to go up a little and figure out a way to come up with more funds (anyone need a part-time secretary/child care specialist/warehouse guy/umpire?) We ended up with a 2006 PT Cruiser for $318 a month. That's going to be hard but God has provided before and He's been pretty faithful.
Monday finally comes. I'm going to show up late for work that day to take care of all the car stuff. We went to the police department for the release. Then we go down to tow yard, pay $365 ($235 for towing fees and a ton for storage fees of a dead car) and go take a look at the car. List of stuff in the car that we were able to identify:
1) The Girl Scout Information burned so it wasn't taken
2) All the car parts were in tact, including radio.
3) A couple of Umpire shirts that were in the back. We've washed them a couple times and they still stink pretty good.
4) My license plate frame is fully functional! It goes on the PT!
5) The Bronco Sticker, rolled up and burned to a crisp.
That's about it. I wasn't able to recognize anything else.
So, from talking to others about it, someone probably stole it, went and robbed a liquor store or something, parked the car out in Loma Linda (behind the Del Taco on Waterman and Barton,) burned it to hide any evidence and used my umpire bag and wife's girl scout tote to fill with the loot. I went to where the car was found and it looked like the trash truck came that morning (Monday) to empty the dumpster so I wasn't able to find anything.
So I was ok with everything. Then I start to think about how the tools my wife and I use to volunteer for things we care for were all stolen. Then I start thinking about what kind of jerks would do that, take stuff that ultimately is going to hurt kids, not just our 4 but all the kids we work with. What kind of jerks would steal a car to rob a place and try to get it to point back to us if the car was seen driving away? Why did this happen to our family!? Getting more and more upset.
I have to change my perspective though. They didn't steal my car, my umpiring gear, my razor, my wife's stuff. These are all ministries that God has given us outside of the church to work with the lost and be a positive influence, showing God's love in everyday life. They stole God's stuff. But that's the great thing. God has a lot more stuff than they can ever steal -- stuff they couldn't steal if they wanted to -- because God wants to give it away. Maybe one day I'll find some of my umpiring stuff hiding in a pawn shop. Maybe I'll inadvertently run into these guys who did this, not knowing it was them. I hope that they will feel the love that God has given me all these years through me despite what they did. God loves them. I may not be happy with them but my anger and hurt isn't going to hurt them. I won't get even by holding a grudge. In the end, God is good. All of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment