The Break-In Blues

On our last day in California, my viodeographer, Brent, and I decided to go to the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for a little exercise. We drove our rental car to the park (Yes, I know. If we really wanted exercise, we should have run. But I would have only lasted two blocks from our hotel and turned around. So we drove...) and parked in a very public spot. After a lovely 2 hour walk, we returned to our car only to find this:

Yes, our car was broken into. It was the middle of the day, and dozens of people were around. Yet someone was able to break the driver side window, steal our Garmin GPS and walk away with the car alarm going off without anyone stopping them. You could say we were in shock.

But what I really was, was panicked. Being an idiot, I had left my cell phone and wallet in the middle console thinking they were safe because the door was locked. So immediately, I checked to see if they were still there. With a sigh of relief, I realized they were - how lucky, and we proceeded to call the police.

This is where the story turns south. The police told us we had to drive the car to the closest police station. When we told them there was glass on the seat and we were from out of town so naturally we don't know where any police stations are, let alone the closet one, they said be careful and they thought there was one on 6th or 5th street. Very helpful.

So Brent sat on the broken glass and cut his hands making every turn while I used the Internet on my cell phone to find the closest police station. From that point on, we received resistance at every point. The police were uncompassionate. The rental car company was hard-to-work with. And that was when I realized that if you're in trouble you can't count on others for help.

Most of us go through life assuming that if something bad happens others, especially the police, will come to your rescue. But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes there are bigger problems happening to other people. Sometimes people just don't care. Either way, you end up having to pick up the pieces and figure out how to rescue yourself.

I for one now know that I should always have a pair of glass-proof gloves and a glass proof mat in the car in case of a break-in. I also should never leave important items in a car, and most importantly never leave things of value visible in a car. After all, locks don't keep someone from getting in your car. They just keep them from opening the door.

But what about your home? When we finally returned to our hotel, I kept wondering,  "What if it had been my house? What if I had lost the things I value most? What if the police didn't care? How could I have stopped it?"

Breaking into a car is violating enough, but the home - that's sacrilege, and it's up to each of us to keep it from happening to our home. The common ways are to install high-quality door locks (You can watch a video about how to find them here.) and turn lights on at night. If you're really worried, you can install an alarm system and turn it on religiously. To top it off you can remove any big bushes that block your door.

But as I learned, even a car that is locked, with an alarm, that is out in the open can be broken into. So if you really want to keep things safe, hide them in a place where the burglar won't have time to look. Not where they won't think to look, but simply where they won't have enough time to find it before getting caught.

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