getting your car jacked sucks

Yesterday was pretty much the worst day ever.

It was my first day back from vacation and things weren't going so great in the office. After a long and stressful day, I was ready to go home. I left the office around 7:30 (I work downtown) and walked to my car.

When I got to my car, I slid into the driver's seat and noticed the CDs, papers and sunglasses from my glove box were strewn about my car. Someone had been inside, looking through my stuff. Funny thing was, my CD player wasn't stolen or anything and there were no signs of forced entry. This was creepy. Really creepy.

After a quick inspection, I breathed a sigh of relief and decided just to drive home and worry about this later. Problem was, my key wouldn't slide into the ignition. The metal slot was thoroughly mangled, probably thanks to some sort of power drill. Great. Someone tried to steal my car. And now I can't get home.

The weird part? This all happened in broad daylight, in a highly visible parking space right near the street. The nerve!

See, I'm kind of used to this. Someone stole my car a couple years back from the Uptown Theatre parking lot. I went to a Strokes concert and, after the show, found a pile of broken glass where I was parked. But that was late at night, in the dark...

A patrolman found the car two weeks later in a highway ditch. The interior was littered with liquor bottles and the seats were reclined to 45-degree angles. My CDs and CD player were gone. There were 600 extra miles on the odometer, and the column was ruined. Thanks, thugs. Thanks.

I went back to the office and with the help of our trusty security guard, Dale, filed a police report over the phone.

I have insurance, but the deductible's high. I'm probably out $500 on this deal, which royally sucks. But at least I still have my vehicle. 

Here's the absolute worst part: Trevan, ink's web editor, actually had his car STOLEN yesterday. As in, the idiotic thieves who couldn't figure out how to take mine took his instead. How do I know this was an organized, intentional car theft operation? Trevan and I drive vehicles of the same make and model and (almost) year.

And guess what? The Kansas City police officers we filed our reports with didn't seem to care about the theft connection. Maybe they'll dust for fingerprints, we naively thought before calling. Apparently -- and kind of understandably -- car theft ranks low in the hierarchy of police investigations.

So, yeah, yesterday was a pretty bad day. But if you ever need to get towed, call Penn towing. Those dudes are awesome.

Just don't rely on the Kansas City police department to investigate organized car theft.