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September 05, 2006

Informatio: ,

Bet you couldn't list all of the uses of a butter knife...

Sorry for not posting sooner, but my mom is in town and I’m trying to limit my computer use while I’m at home.

I got my car back on Thursday evening. It was a tough decision—I could have just left it at th4e impound—but, in the end, I know it’s a good car that runs well. And, seeing that the perps only drove it fifty miles or so (it still had gas in the tank) I didn’t feel like it was tainted too badly.

The most maddening thing about going out to look at my car wasn’t anything that the perps did either. The impound is outdoors and it has been raining a lot lately. Of course, there was nothing to be done about the broken window, but some smart person left the driver’s side window down too. The rain didn’t damage anything, but the floor was soaked and the side-pockets on the doors were full of water and dead bugs.

It cost $75 to get the car out of the impound—not too bad. Now, I have to worry about getting the steering column fixed (the perps broke that to start the car) as well as the front passenger-side window. My initial quotes weren’t good—around $1000 when all is said and done. But, I have a friend who works at a salvage yard checking out some other options for me.

So, what does a butter knife have to do with all of this?

Good question.

While cleaning out the car the other day, I found what I think was the M.O. of the robbery: a butter knife. You see, not only does the handle of a butter knife make a nice weighted instrument for breaking windows, it also works great as a prying tool (for breaking the plastic casing around a streering column), as well as the tool that’s needed to start the car once the steering column casing is broken. (In fact, if you want to go steal some Buicks, I’ll show you how—it’s really easy.)

In the meantime, my car is sitting in my driveway. It’s got a trash bag taped over the broken window and there’s a butter knife in the glove box in case you want to take it out for a spin… One things, though: the batteries dead too, so you probably won’t get very far.

You might remember this photo—taken the morning after my car was stolen. Here are some more photos of the “scene of the crime”:

Impound Jargon

The 'Scene'

Modus Operandi

Thanks for all of the prayers and well-wishing, everyone. I appreciate it. Truth be told, I’m still waiting to find out if this is a curse or a blessing. I’ll let you know if I ever find out.

Posted at 07:24 am

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Comments (6):
Haha – great pic with the butter knife in the glass. Hope your mom is enjoying her visit – tell her I say hello if you get the chance. Hope all is well!

jdpierce (URL) - September 05, 2008 at 09:06 am

Did you use anything like gloves or a plastic bag to handle the butter knife and preserve it? Shouldn’t it be processed as evidence by the police? Even though you got your car back, I should think a set of prints might turn up in the system. Especially if the skel(s) who jacked your ride are stupid enough to leave it behind at the scene, as it were.

Shepcat () (URL) - September 05, 2008 at 10:53 am

Curse. Cars are always a curse. But a stolen car is a curse also so maybe its a double negative and your breaking even?

Randy () (URL) - September 05, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Hehe. Thanks, James. ;-) (And, I’ll let my mom know!)

Shep ~ The cops hardly wanted to look at our house when it was robbed. I have the feeling that a car is not at the top of the forensics lab’s todo list.

Randy ~ I’m going with that. Yeah. That sounds good! :-D

timsamoff () (URL) - September 05, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Some friends of mine had their apartment burglarized when we lived in Minneapolis. That evening, as they were climbing into bed after having dealt with the police, etc., they pulled the comforter back to find a crow bar in the middle of the bed. They didn’t disturb it and called the police. The detective asks, “Are you sure it isn’t your crow bar?” Yeah, because people usually store their crow bars in their bed, I know I do…

Jodi () (URL) - September 22, 2006 at 1:53 pm

Yeah. When our house was broken into (the first time), the cops dusted for prints, but didn’t find any. There were even drops of blood trailing from the broken window to where our DVD player used to be… Not a blink from the cops. They said buglaries just weren’t important enough to spend too much time on.

timsamoff () (URL) - September 25, 2006 at 1:12 pm

  
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