So I Dialed 9-1-1 This Morning...

I am a naturally early riser. This is why, last night, when I realized that we were out of cat food, I decided to go get some from D&W the next morning, rather than going out right then. Which I did. I even picked up a couple of muffins (on sale $.79 each) for Caryn and me as a little treat.

As I drove home I saw that Caryn had left the back passenger window on her car open all night long. Not a difficult thing to do, but unlike Caryn. As I drove up closer I realized that the window was not simply down, but smashed to pieces! Leaving both cat food and muffins in the truck I went up stairs to (someone rudely) wake Caryn with, "Caryn, I need you to wake up and think if there was anything valuable in your car." After a few moments we were both dress and outside looking at the window and trying to remember if there was anything stolen. We could come up with anything, nor did it look like any of the doors had been opened. I thought maybe a baseball or something accidentally knocked it out and the kids who did it just took off. Then I saw the paint ball mark on the side of our truck.

[On a side note: don't bother with the police non-emergency number before 8:00. It's just a recorded voice.]

So I dialed 9-1-1 and about a half an hour later an officer pulls up in his car. As he gets out he says, "Sons-of-******" It seems that we had been only the most recent victim of a two day spree of vandalism that consisted of shoot paintballs at cars and slingshooting rocks at large picture windows within a quarter mile radius heading southward. The police officer was clearly frustrated and told me that the vandals had already done around $12,000 worth of estimated damage.

But I didn't let it ruin my day. I just called the insurance and set up from someone to come fix the window. They should be coming out this afternoon. I mean, if you let every little thing ruin your day, your never going to make it. I did have to spend the morning vacuuming out the glass, but the car was dirty and needed to be vacuumed anyway. This just forced me to do it today. Am I happy about it? Of course not. Is there anything I can do about it? I could wear cape and tights and run around Grand Haven fighting crime vigilante style....

But I'll probably just do what I needed to do today and hope that the repair take neither too much time nor too much money. But I will keep my eyes and ears open; and you too, should you find yourself in the Grand Haven area in the 1100-1300 block between Taylor and Washington, and see anything suspicious, first call the police, then call me, and I'll bring the punks some sandwiches...knuckle sandwiches.