Who Needs a Sense of Security Anyway? - or- You Can't take the Sky from Me, but Everything Else is Up for Grabs

Well I'm finally moving (see Aug. of last year--kinda got sidetracked by all that other stuff) this week--having a place to hang my hat is quite the relief--even if a bunch of cardboard boxes to be moved and unpacked stand in our way before we can relax and enjoy it.

Anytime you move, you expect certain hangups--"Where did all that silverware get packed?", "You really want to keep that?" and the like. But this time we got one that I didn't see coming. Yesterday afternoon as we pulled up to the place I've been staying, The Love of My Life sees my van Serenity parked out front asks, "Did you leave your window down?"

"What?" That would be a stupid thing to do--and while I don't rank myself as a genius, I'm not that dumb.

"Look, it's open." TLoML points.

But it wasn't, technically, open. It was gone.

But it wasn't, technically, gone, I guess. It was relocated. Most of it was anyway--there was a nice collection of shattered pieces clinging to the rubber weatherstripping. And the rest was located in many tiny little pieces outside the door and on the driver's seat.

I knew what I was going to find when I opened the door to look, but I did it anyway. My nice, but not excessively so, months-old Alpine deck wasn't in the dash anymore--just a battered mounting kit. The mangled metal frame to it was on the floorboard, the faceplate was face down on the seat, and the rest was...well, elsewhere. The rest of the van's contents had been tossed, didn't look like anything else was taken...just the stereo.

Now this was the second car stereo I've had stolen in 18 months--different van this time. So I'm starting to wonder if I hadn't just find an old 8-track player to use. But this one really hurt to lose--it was a gift from a great couple from church to help me out. And judging by the remnants they left, what they took isn't even usable! Not only criminal, but stupid and pointless.

It's pointless, but on the off chance it'll help out a neighbor, I report the thing stolen to the police, the dispatcher says they'll send a car out. The officer ends up acting like this is more pointless than I know it is, but it at least gave him the chance to hand out one of his business cards and flash his Oakleys.

While I'm waiting for him to come by, I decide to read my mail--kill a little time. Mostly bills, which I set aside--don't need to fret about that now. One envelope throws me--it's from one of the few states I don't seem to have a creditor in--so I open that one up.

It's from some company that processes checks for retail companies and whatnot. Seems one of their employees took it upon himself to take names, addresses, account information, etc. and sell them to some other company. Now, "it doesn't appear" that this information has been used for anything other than getting names added to mailing lists, but they give about a page of tips to battle identity theft both now and in the future. So it's entirely possible that while I have no car stereo, I'm in some other state buying them like crazy.

Have 11.5 months left on this lease...days like yesterday make me think I ought to look to buying land in Lancaster County, PA when it's over.