Attempted Car Theft

I woke up this morning to find that someone had attempted to steal my car! Crazy, right? I mean I guess it probably isn't in reality as it's an old car and is probably an easy target, but I'm not all that happy about it. But what a bunch of excitement it's bringing to my day! I didn't have plans for today at all but, now, I've been busy all day - filing police reports, insurance claims, organizing a tow, talking with mechanics. Never a boring moment here! Or at least not in the last few hours there hasn't been. And right now, I'm getting another call.... Hold please.... Okay, thanks for holding. That was the glass people. They will be fixing the window on Thursday, while the ignition is also being fixed.

Okay, anyways, so I went out to my car to get in this morning and when I went to the driver's side door to unlock it, I noticed the lock looked a bit funny, like someone had tried to jimmy it. Then I noticed my car was unlocked and I thought how weird, I never leave my car unlocked. I opened the door then and saw broken glass in my back seat. I immediately assumed they broke in to steal stuff from my car, in which case I'm very glad I don't keep anything valuable in my car, and so I went inside to call the police. While I was on the phone with the police report a car break-in the woman asked if looked like they had attempted to steal it at which point I went to look and saw that the entire ignition was torn out. So, my answer to her was obviously yes, they did try to steal my car. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with her filing the report after which she told me she would send it to the local precinct who may or may not want to come out and see the car. Either way I took video and pictures, see here:

Broken window behind the passenger side door - how they got into my car in the end.

Tampered driver's side lock.

Where's my ignition gone?

Stupid thieves they couldn't even hot wire the car!

After getting off the phone with police I called the insurance company who told me they would replace the glass since I have glass coverage - yay! - which would've cost about $100-$200. They will not cover the ignition, however, because I only have Third Party, Fire, and Theft. The insurance covers the car if it's stolen, but not if someone attempts to steal it. It would've been nice to get the big payout had the car been stolen, but I do love it and I'm happy it's still mine :) We're gonna make so many great memories together.

Okay, so moving on, I called the only mechanic I've been to so far in Auckland - out in Te Atatu where Terri and Mimi live - and he referred me to an electrician who can do the work, Paul. I sent Paul some photos, he reviewed them, and told me between the ignition and the door, at a maximum, it'll cost me $738 including tax. With the tow, that my roadside assistance does not cover because my vehicle was vandalized and not broken down (seriously?), it'll be about $850 worse case scenario. I'm hoping the door lock doesn't need to be fixed - fingers crossed - because that'll save me some money (watch another video staring me and my car). My car is getting picked up tonight or tomorrow by the tow company and then Paul will call me with a better quote estimate. It's a lot to spend on my car (which I only paid $2000 for) but I've been able to see and do so much because of that car so to me having it working is very important. Plus, if I can sell it at the end of my time here and get some money back that'll be really nice.

I guess people trying to steal your car happens when you have one as awesome as mine. They're just jealous!

So anyways, that's what I've been up to today.

Last week I worked 55 hours in total - money in the bank, very nice especially after today.
So far this week (I've worked 2 days) I'm up to 22.75 hours so that's good as well, now that I really need the money, not just to save, but to fix my car! Yikes! Maybe I can spread the car costs out over the next few weeks though and not have to dip into my savings. Otherwise I'm taking donations if you'd like to make one ;)

Okay, well now that it's 4pm on my day off and I haven't done anything day off worthy yet I'm going to end this blog post and go and do something, even if it's just lie around and watch TV and do nothing, at least that's something worthy of a day off.

Best!