So, this last weekend we drove up to Eugene with my Grandmother to join my mom and sister there for my aunt's birthday.  This brought much of the immediate family together in a less hectic environment than our wedding celebration last year.

We drove up most of the day Friday and back most of the day Sunday, leaving only Friday evening and Saturday for visiting. This worked out well, though.  We went to their shop, had a few really nice meals with them, and played a board game, Cranium, which we hadn't played before.  During the day, we went out for a game of bowling, too.

Just as we'd gotten in to the second game and I was waiting in line, which was slow, the one person helping the line left it to announce something.  It started with something about an Accord (wait, I can't leave my lights on) but quickly mentioned California plates, which was a give-away. 

Outside I go, not knowing quite what's wrong because it had been too noisy to hear well.  There, I found the right rear window smashed!  A passenger had left a bag on the seat and apparently someone had just walked by, noticed it, smashed the window, grabbed it, and moved on.  Nothing else was taken, including items in the front seat, glove boxes, and trunk.  We were glad for that, but the bag that was stolen had contained many personal items and keys from a couple of our passengers, so that's still causing a hassle with them.

The whole even was on a security video, which may aunt is sending to me.  I'll have to make a copy and edit it up for posting online here.  It might be fun. ;)

Cleaning up the glass ended up taking a couple of hours, which was a significant portion of the time we were there.  Luckily, that gave some time for my grandma to visit with her daughters.

We taped up some plastic for the 500 mile drive back Sunday.  By Monday at 1:00 PM the window had already been fixed.  On Tuesday I got to give the list of property damage and items stolen to the police.  When I get the security video, I may be calling them back to add some information if there is any detail of use on it. 

Some lessons and interesting tidbits learned:

• Don't have items visible in a car, regardless of where you are
• Don't assume a car alarm will attract any sort of attention; it was 30 minutes before the broken glass was reported.  In that time, someone could have climbed in and taken other stuff or even the car itself.
• When making a list of stolen items, provide serial numbers, brands, and replacement value for as much as possible.  Details such as color and size are important, too, but the other bits of information are more clear for identifying the lot.
• Auto insurance does not cover the contents of items stolen.  That's for home owner's or renter's insurance.  Keep in mind, though, that filing a claim is subject to deductibles and possible dropping of insurance because home owner's is a loss leader.
• Glass is a special case for repair and insurance.  Glass isn't fixed by the dealer and our insurance had a special option for it on their call menu. Other damage that the broken glass does is different, though, but from what we can tell none of the leather was scratched and maybe only one minor nick to the paint was done that we didn't notice until later.
• The police want to know how much it costs to repair the damage done.  Theft and property damage are two difference illegal items.
• Don't be scared by filing a police report.  In my case, the Eugene officer was friendly and polite on the phone, even though I could tell there was a lot of noise around her making it difficult to hear me.
• Calling 911 for a theft after the fact will get you someone who will give you the local police number.  Have something to write on handy so you don't tie up the line longer than needed. (In this case, I used my LG VX9800 for taking notes while talking on the UpStage.)
• After calling 911, my cell phone (the Sprint UpStage, in this case) stayed in emergency only mode and wouldn't go out with a few presses of the end key and confirmation of such an action.  This made it impossible to call any other number before getting out of this mode.
• Even though I called with a phone that certainly sent my location to 911, they wanted to know my exact address and location.  Have someone around that knows, if possible.  The police line won't get your location, either, so you'll need to know.  Worst case, use a GPS fix or a map to get an estimate of the street address if you're not actually near a posted address.
• The police don't come out for this sort of event.  After calling and giving the location and my contact information, I was told to make a complete list of items stolen and damage done, but that there was nothing else I needed to do at that time.  They would call back within a couple of days.  The fact that it was an out-of-state cell phone number did not matter.

I'm sure many of you know this, but I've never experience this for myself so I wanted to record some of the details while it was still fresh in my memory. 

The photo above doesn't do a great job of showing that the glass was across the entire rear of the vehicle.  It must have been hit pretty hard to cause even some large chunks to end up clear on the other side.

Posted by Shane on April 25, 2007 8:21 AM | Permalink