Holiday Spirit

I'd like to think that in the week between Christmas and the New Year everyone is in a pretty good mood. Lots of food and drink has been consumed while everyone enjoys a little family time.

To enjoy my time off, my family came out to DC for a few days. We went to a wonderful dinner at Martin's Tavern, saw the pre-Broadway run of West Side Story at the National Theatre, toured the recently renovated Smithsonian American History Museum, and visited Kennedy's house next door. We then spent Christmas driving back to Indiana (which I do NOT suggest). We could not find a single restaurant open on Christmas day so we snacked on food from gas stations. Mmmmm...

And then we arrived back in Indiana.

I went to services, got to see the girls (and Lauren's shiny new engagement ring!) and everyone else from high school while out in Broad Ripple, got Chinese food from our local spot, went shopping at Castleton and Keystone, watched lots of movies in the newly redone basement, and had 2 of our cars broken into.

That's right. I woke up at 7 this morning to my dad coming back in to the house instead of going to the JCC for his normal 4+ hour Sunday workout to tell me he was calling the cops. My dad's Civic and my mom's Accord had their front windows smashed in and their stereos ripped out of the cars (in a pretty sloppy manner, if I do say so myself).

So I went to wake up everyone else in the house as my dad called the cops. As he finished with the cops and got our insurance company on the phone, my mom and I went out to further inspect the damage. And that's when I pulled my mom back away from the car because our robbers had left their gun next to her car.

Seeing as I am a little white girl from the Far Northside, I don't have a lot of experience with crime scenes. In fact, everything I know comes from CSI. So we waited for the cops to show up in order to take pictures of the damage and dust the scene for prints.

Sadly, I guess Grissom and his crew don't tend to head out east for simple larceny cases. The cop quickly found the gun, picked it up, and determined it was just a bb gun. Not quite as exciting as what I might see on any one of CBS's crime shows, but still pretty intense for my boring life.

So the cops did their thing (which is in no way as glamorous as what TV has led me to believe) and left us with a number for the insurance company and 2 out of 5 cars that need to get new windows and center consoles (like I said, not a very pretty job).

And the irony of it all - they left the three cars sitting in the driveway alone. If they had just started from the top they would have noticed the UNMARKED POLICE CAR my dad has as a chaplain for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

So next time you decide you need some quick cash, here are my suggestions:
1. Get a job! I am pretty sure dumb thugs are employable in some legal way (even if the economy currently sucks).
2. Beg. I hear the guy who used to stand on the off-ramp near Keystone Mall drove a Jaguar. He seems to be doing all right.
3. Donate plasma. I hear that pays pretty well.
4. DON'T steal a Pioneer stereo system I got for my 17th birthday to go in my 1992 Chevy Corsica. My guess is that a 10 year old CD player isn't really going to be worth much on the black market.

And in the holiday spirit, here is my final wish for you, my dear stereo bandits: May Santa put coal in your stocking next year!

For your viewing pleasure, Mara's picture of the crime scene:
(Notice the very realistic gun just below the open door. Yes, this is exactly how the dumb robbers left everything.)