So last weekend, my friend left her wallet in the cup holder of her car. At 6PM in broad daylight, her passenger window was busted into and 3 thugs got off with a measly $40 and some credit cards. They used the same card twice at the same gas station for booze and cigs. And do you know what people are saying to her first? "Well, why did you leave that in your car?" COME ON PEOPLE, have you never left anything in your car? Just because you leave something in your car does NOT give anyone the invite to bust our your window and steal it. There are several things that peeve me off about this whole situation.
1. Blaming her. Yes officer/cashier/close friend, she knows that it should have been either in her trunk or in her house. But things happen, we get busy and distracted and we forget. It's not like she left a friggin baby in there. Her wallet is the size of a credit card and if you were just passing by, you wouldn't have seen it. It's the fact that 3 kids were making a point to look into everyone's car that it was actually seen. The last thing anyone that has their car broken into wants to hear is "well you shouldn't have left it there in the first place" - how about a little "Oh man, that really sucks. Did you cancel your cards yet? Is there anything I can do? Should I open that bottle of wine yet?" That is what you say. So unless you're going to say that, zip it.
2. The fact we went to the gas station that these people used her card at, twice within a 5 minute period I might add, and the cashier was like, "Oh yes, I do remember running that card." Okay Sally, well, that card was stolen. Then she says to the other cashier, "Jennifer, we're going to be $50 short tomorrow because she cancelled these two transactions." WTF? Are you serious lady? She shows us the receipts - booze and cigs. The receipt notes "ID VERIFIED TO CUSTOMER" with a birth date of 1944 on one and 1973 on the other. From what the neighbors say, these boys were maybe 15. I realize she was most likely afraid of being shot, but when an id says SALLY JOHNSON and 2 boys use the same card within 5 minutes, obviously something is not right.
3. The fact that these kids will do this again. They got away with it for a little while, at least until she cancelled her cards. The next time they tried to use her card I'm sure the cashier confiscated it and told the boys to leave. And that's it. Nothing else. No punishment, no restitution, no nothing. But my friend is stuck with cleaning up the mess and getting her window fixed, at her expense. She reported the crime and was given a card with a case number on it and that was it.
It just irritates the heck out of me. From the fact that it happened, to the fact that people are essentially blaming her, and basically letting these kids get away with being criminals.
I did manage to help her down a few bottles of wine and try our hand at some gymnastics while watching the Olympics. But we can do that on any other night and we certainly don't need to worry about our cars being broken into while we're
PliƩ-ing with a glass of wine in hand.