Friday, April 03, 2009

Twice in one day...

Unbelievable as it may sound but we have just experienced having our car broken into twice today. Yup, twice in the span of a few hours. This is my first brush with lawlessness here in the US. I am just thankful that none of those I love has been hurt in the process. Yeah, we lost some stuff but "stuff" are replaceable even though some of those stuff were somewhat expensive. Yet I choose to look at these incidents today in a more positive light -- no one from my family got hurt in the process. But my poor husband...Here's how it happened.

When Junby was about to leave for the office this morning that's when he saw that the front passenger seat's window was all smashed up! Smashed up into tiny pieces with a few shards clinging to the frame.
The broken glass you see on the ground next to the car was what was left of the window. We surmised that the person must have seen the mount for the GPS on the dashboard and so decided to steal it since the mount was gone. The glove compartment was open so we surmised they thought the GPS unit was in it. Luckily, Junby makes a habit of brining the unit with him everytime he comes down from the car. So, not finding the GPS unit they decided to take some of the CDs , Junby's MP3 player (which he had just upgraded with a 16MB memory card) and a flashlight that Junby kept in the front. It was a good thing those were the only things the person took. He didn't check the trunk which had contained Junby's equipment which he uses for the choir practice -- his mini AMP, etc. So my poor husband didn't get to report to work since he had to inform the insurance about the break-in, bring the car, which we had fondly dubbed "SMURF" since it's small and blue, to the auto bodyshop for repair and get a rental car to use.

Junby and I were half-jokingly telling each other, this must be Satan's way of destroying our peace since last night Junby and I took part in the parish's reconciliation service and availed of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We thought that was the end of it but nope. More was to come.

Junby left for choir practice which was held at the parish of St. Maria Goretti. I went up to put Therese to bed. At around 9 pm, Junby calls to tell me that the rental car he's using got broken into again! Someone smashed the window and this time took his belt pouch which was partly hidden under the seat. So now he has to inform the rental company that the car has been broken into. What was lost? The belt pouch contained his camera (which had photos of Therese and whatnot, some of which he had not downloaded yet :( ), his cellphone which had his philippine sim and other stuff.

What is going on?!? When I talked to Junby's cousin to tell her the news, she said it could be that the people who did the first job were mad that they didn't really get anything of value from our car and they might have actually watched him, followed him and decided to see if they could get more this time. At this point I don't think its too farfetched an idea. And to think that it was only his rental car that was broken into, and in the parking lot of a church.

What's also ironic is that our apartment is situated in a gated community. The gates are closed at night and supposedly only residents with the remote can get in. Go figure. Just when you think you are quite safe, things like this happen to remind you to be vigilant. Sigh. It's been a rough day all around, for my husband most especially. Yet, I still thank God that nothing worse has happened to him or to us. I continue to pray that this will be the end of it. I can only pray that God will help protect all those I love from further harm. Keep us in your prayers too.

In the midst of all these events, I can still say though that God has been good. It could have been worse...