Worst day in quite awhile...

So I'm driving to my friend William's house at 7:30pm in Long Beach. I was pretty excited because I hadn't seen William in awhile and we were going to our favorite and best damn Japanese noodle restaurant, Kiraku (which Shin, whom I introduced to the restaurant can vouch for) As I entered his house, he told me he'd be just a few minutes to finish configuring a router. We chatted for about 10 minutes and decided to leave, and when I got out... i was completely shocked, my car was gone..

It's kind of funny, I mean you hear about cars being stolen all the time. Usually you kind of just feel bad, but it doesn't really affect you and you continue on with your day and life. I know that's how I felt. But when it hits close to home, or in this case, it happens to you, it's frightening. I mean, there's someone inside of your car who's going to strip it, sell everything off it and in it, and you're never going to see that car again.

It didn't really sink in. I was still in shock. So I called 911 on my cell phone and got something that surprised me, "All our operators are busy right now please remain on the line.." for 7 minutes, and finally I just had William grab his land phone and we called and got in instantly. The cops arived shortly after, and I filed a police report and now I just wait for my car to turn up stripped and empty.

But I mean, 7 minutes of holding! What if I had been shot, or ran over!! I'd be dead!! I mean, seriously! I thought that shit only happened in the movies.

The fact that my car was stolen within 10 minutes, at a time when people are still coming home from work, I'd have to assume it was done by a professional who was probably tailing me. Since I have to assume that, I also have to assume that my car is completely stripped on both the outside and on the inside. Including all my lovely pokerchips, poker table, poker cards, and of course my poker books. No, insurance will not cover those and my car is probably gonna be worthless.

I'm not much of a positive person -- the glass is always half empty -- but I guess the only real thing to be positive about in this type of situation is that I didn't come out of his house 5 minutes earlier or I'd probably of walked right into the guy stealing my car and I'd probably be on the floor with a bullet in my head..

What also angers me is, I had saved 8 grand for my WRX and I'll have to use that money now to buy me a "transitiion car" until I can once again save up for my WRX.

Luckily, I still have my old camry 87 at my mom's house that I'm going to have to use to get around now. What I totally forgot while I sat down thinkin about everything in that car that I'd never see again, I realized that I didn't have a garage door opener anymore either. I mean, you steal a guy's poker chips that's one thing, and to even steal his car that's even worse, but to steal a man's garage door opener -- that means war!

Thanks for everyone for their kind words and support, and even the people who laugh at me and say its my karma -- don't worry, they don't get to me -- I'll keep you updated on the situation as I know more. But all I can think about is, if they find my car, how am I going to be able to look at it without anything in it or on it....

What a difference 36 hours makes...

11.25.04

I'll be honest. I became depressed, so depressed in fact that I couldn't sleep that night, and didn't fall asleep until 10:45am. I woke up at 1:00pm. So I'm sitting on my couch moping about my car on Thanksgiving day when I get a phone call around 7:30.... I answer the phone and it's a cop. My heart begins to pound and I begin to fear the worst. The cop informs me that he has located my stolen vehicle in Compton (yea big shock) and that the only thing that appears stolen is my Radio. I ask him if my car's been stripped and he tells me no, and that the car runs as well. I'm extremely relieved and happy. What a difference in the span of 24 hours to go from depressed to high within seconds.

11.26.04

We head to the Sherrif's office in Compton to get the release forms for my stolen car. The cops there were absolutely stupid!! We handed him the report of the stolen car and he looks at it like it was written in French, and then tried to charge me for fees that didn't apply to me. Luckily my sister and I spoke up and were able to dismiss all the fees!!

We head over to the Towing company that has my car and we run into a roadblock. "Your car doesn't start, you need to bring a tow truck to take it home..." WTF? The cop had told me it started, the police report STATED it started.... I've heard of shady Tow Companys that take items from your car, and I began to get a sick feeling in my stomach. I called the Compton Sheriff's office and they deter me away saying that since the Tow Company is in Carson, I need to duke it out with the Carson police... BUT COMPTON FOUND MY CAR AND THEY TOLD ME IT WAS WORKING YOU STUPID IDIOT.

I asked to see my car. "We don't let anyone on our private property." Well.... What's wrong with my car? "You need a tow truck..." WTF!!?!!?! Finally after 30 minutes of yelling, she tells us the car has a broken key in the ignition. So my sister calls her fiance who is a federal agent and he calls the Compton Police and talks to Officer Choi (The officer who found my car and wrote the report) and asked him about it. The officer told him that there was no broken key in the ignition, and that the car started. He even volunteered to come down and argue...

After waiting another hour, we get a call from the fiance. Officer Choi has made a huge mistake. You see, he's mistaken my car for another car, and in fact that the details he wrote about my car is incorrect and that he can't verify what was taken or not taken from my car!! But he can confirm that there WAS a key jammed in it, and that it COULD NOT start.... what a fucking idiot!!!

Finally we get Triple A to come with a tow truck and pay the $150 charge to release my car, and I finally got to see my car... and I almost cried... I think i would of if my sister and the tow truck driver weren't next to me... The entire back right bumper had been smashed (presumably in an accident due to careless driving) and my right side lights were smashed, the bumper was falling off, my hub caps were gone, I immediately opened my trunk to see if my poker gear was still there... Of course not, it was gone.... I opened up my car, to find all my registration papers thrown all over the place with muddy footprints on them, my Lord of the Rings book remained, however they had stepped all over the pages with mud. My sunglasses, my change, my jacket, my poker book, my CD-Rs, my radio, my garage door opener, my SQUEEGEE, and my VIAGRA PEN were all stolen. The only things that survived the theft were the Lord of the Rings book, my jigglypuff, and my AT-AT micromachine toy. To make matters worse, they had taken my car to get food and spilled chili fries all over the seats and floor, completely staining the car. They broke my ignition by jamming a house key in it (how they got it started, thanks a lot Honda) and broke the dashboard to get the Radio out.

Now I have to take the car to the shop and see how much repairing will cost. I have a feeling, the amount of repairs will out equal the amount of the car's worth, and as a result they are going to junk it and give me a couple thousand and I'll have to get a new car... Since we can't get the car to turn on, we have no idea whether or not they fucked up anything internally when they went on their "joyride" of smashing my car over curbs and mud.

It's been pretty traumic for me, and very stressful. Going from low to high and then back low again in the span of 36 hours has not been very pleasant. I've tried my best to keep my head up, but truthfully it really hurts. Part of me really doesn't want that car to be fixed, it just pains me and makes me sick to look in that car and see what they did to it. I don't know how I would be able to drive that car again and enjoy it. The thought of someone unkown in your car, taking all of your stuff and probably laughing and making fun of your possessions while doing it just makes me sick...

Thanks again everyone for your kind thoughts and support, I really appreciate it. And thanks Amit for the beer at the bar.