Penny Hero (dot) Net

So, very close to exactly 2 years ago, I had my first brush with scary crime about 2 weeks into my new life in the Bay Area. My car got broken into and my stereo was stolen. And, within about a week, someone came to my apartment pretending to be a friendly neighbor and attempted to expose himself to me and force himself into my apartment. Those were not the best weeks evar, and definitely not the best introduction to the area.

Needless to say, I moved out of those cheap apartments and moved somewhere I felt was much safer. My new apartments are off the street, resident parking is locked under ground, there are lots of families around, the managers all live here and are always around, etc.

So, I’m glad I’m not about to say that my car was stolen from my apartments and now I’m afraid to come home etc. No… my car was stolen from work.

If you know me, you know -where- I work… and apparently, this is the first time ever that a car has been stolen from one of our campus lots. There are nice, friendly, plainly visible surveillance cameras all over the outside of the buildings, so I’m sure that’s a deterrent. But… not deterrent enough apparently.

Here’s what happened (according to the security folks telling me what was on the video):

9:45am – I arrive, I park my car in the usual space. I enter the building and go about my work day.

9:45 – 8:25ish – My car is there, perfectly fine ALL DAY LONG.

6:45pmish – I started to think about going home, but decided to stay and finish the last 2 documents I was working on reviewing. Little do I know, a dirty car thief is on his way to campus driving a stolen car.

8:00pm to 8:25pmish – Thief pulls into the driveway in a beige Nissan and parks next to me. He sits there for a little while, then gets out of the car. He walks straight to my car, unlocks the door, gets in, starts it up and drives away as if it belongs to him. The cameras apparently didn’t show any forced entry.

8:30pm – I decide to leave. I pack up and head out to find my car is gone. I apparently missed him by about 5 minutes or so. When I first realized this, I thought “oh man, I could have avoided the theft if I’d just gone out there 5 minutes earlier.” Then I realized… oh wait. If I’d gone out 5 minutes earlier, the thief would be sitting in the car parked next to mine, with god knows what kind of criminal intent. It’s pretty dark out at that hour, and I’m not exactly a big strong person.

Yeah… after thinking about it like that, I’m SUPER glad that it was just my car that was stolen.

I read online a few people in various forums talking about how “zomg my key opens my boyfriend’s car and starts it! wtf Honda?!” so I’m guessing I just have one of those cars that are really really easy to steal. (98 Honda Civic, to be specific)

The story goes that the Nissan was apparently stolen 3 days ago, so this person is switching cars and moving on apparently. Not sure how FAR he moves on before dumping a car… The sort of cool part about my whole experience was I got to watch the cops dust the car for prints. I think I even muttered “it’s like an episode of CSI” or something. hehe.

Anyway… my insurance company is covering a rental car until it’s recovered, or until 21 days pass… at which time my claims person says they’ll make an offer and I’ll give up the rental and have to buy a new car.

Good times. Good times.

Regardless of if my car is recovered, i’m about 99% sure I’d like to buy something newer and a little harder to steal. I might even go for a brand new car of some kind.

Any suggestions? I like smaller cars, compact, reliable, etc. I DO like Hondas, and if I could find a new Honda that wasn’t a giant boat as pretty much all the new Hondas seem to be, I’d probably go for that. I’m sort of infatuated with the idea of getting a mini, but I’m open to other suggestions. Got any?