Sometime last night someone decided, I guess, that my car looked like it might have treats inside and smashed my window in to get them. There were no treats, really--the most expensive thing in there was a coat I had left in the back seat, and they didn't even take that. They took some CDs (I hope they like Whiskeytown!) and the mount for my GPS. They also, I am happy/grossed-out to report, appear to have done themselves some injury, since many of the extremely unvaluable papers they pulled out of my glove compartment were blood-stained.I called the police this morning after I went out to get the newspaper and saw what had happened, and a few minutes later my neighbor, who is a Trenton police officer, was ringing my bell to take the report. He doesn't actually work in our district but saw the call and came over himself, which was super nice. And because of the blood he actually called a tech in to see if they could get fingerprints--just like on tv! Of course, assuming that kind of thing only happened on tv (and honestly not even expecting an officer to show up in person--when I called the TPD, the woman said she'd have an officer call me), I had already been in the car to see what was missing and picked up the stuff that had been strewn in the street. My neighbor kind of tsk-tsked me and said that next time I really should wait for the police before touching anything. (Next time!)
So this kind of thing happens, and I'm not really that freaked out by it (though I did decide that getting your car broken into means that you can eat as many donuts as you want for the next 24 hours), but I admit I am hesitant to tell people who are already critical of where I live, and who will almost certainly start dusting off their speeches about how I should move. The thing is, people break into cars all over. The likelihood of criminal mischief--and various other crimes--is higher in cities. People live in cities despite that fact, because, typically, there are advantages to living in a city that they believe outweigh the negatives. The problem, of course, is that Trenton's advantages are not as easy to pinpoint these days as the advantages of, say, Philadelphia, or even Baltimore, whose crime rates are also high, but whose cultural offerings make up for it. Or even of Newark, which may not be a cultural mecca at the moment, but whose leadership seems to at least be making an effort to make things better there. And because I'm not really in the mood at the moment to regale naysayers with my list of Things to Love about Trenton, I'm laying low today. So do me a favor and don't tell my dad, okay?
6 comments:
I'm so sorry to hear that the little Mini has been injured and violated. I had a similar thing happen to my car in Evanston, IL, so it happens in North Shore frou frou suburbs, too. I will still come visit you and park my car on your street. :)
Glen says his car was burgled/damaged several times while living in Toronto, a much safer and culturally advanced city.
My brother-in-law left a toolbox in his truck bed once while he was visiting me, over here on the other side of Hamilton Avenue, and the toolbox was stolen. No one said anything about moving out of the neighborhood, but I knew what they were thinking based on their sour faces for the next couple of weeks. Then his truck was broken into for some change and a Longaberger basket sitting out on the seat. In their driveway, in safe, cozy Farmingdale, NJ.
Thanks for the reminders that suburbanites get their shit messed with too. And JB, I'm holding you to that!
In our neighborhood (S. Clinton off of Greenwood) none of our neighbors who have expensive, fancy cars were ever vandalized, but my husband's hooptie Olsdmobile, complete with no alarm, was not only vandalized for the radio, but later stolen and apparently driven over the bridge to commit an armed robbery. I was mad at him (the radio was removable, why tempt fate!) but he still won't get rid of the car.
Since our toddler daughter isn't allowed in it (my rule), I'm usually driving that car. Now when someone looks inside they can see the damage has already been done (he only repaired the broken window but never bothered to cover the ripped out radio guts area) so it hasn't been vandalized in two years.
Finally, we used to live near the Hyatt in West Windsor. Cars parked in the hotel lot are frequently vandalized. One night no less than seven cars were vandalized during an event. Never made it into the papers. So this is certainly not just a 'hood issue.
Taneshia, thank you, mostly for reminding me of the word "hooptie." Brings me back to high school! I miss Sir Mix-a-Lot.
From my work at The Princeton Packet I can add to Taneshia's point about West Windsor - the area around Alexander Road, especially in the train station lots, gets dozens of break-ins every week. MarketFair is even worse - smash-and-grabs happen there even more frequently.
Post a Comment