Tomorrow is Melissa’s 20th high school reunion. Tonight we went to South Doyle for a pre-reunion football game. It was a nice night until we left the game and discovered someone had smashed out the Honda’s window and stolen my camera bag.
They got the 18-55mm kit lens, the 50mm 1.8, the 70-300mm (that one really hurt), plus a really excellent polarizing filter, and some miscellaneous camera junk along with a Carter’s diaper bag I was using as a stealth camera bag.
The good news is I had the camera, the new Nikon AF-S 35mm lens and the external flash around my neck taking pictures at the football game, so I’m not totally dead in the water. They also ignored the radar detector, a Streamlight flashlight in the opposite door, a CB radio under the seat, or a Victorinox SwissTool and other stuff in the glovebox. Melissa didn’t have her pocketbook tonight, so we didn’t lose any money, credit cards, drivers license, etc.
It sucks, but at this point in my life I have insurance and money. In my twenties I had a car broken into once when I had neither. I found out about that break-in when a park ranger hiked into my backcountry campsite the first morning of a three night backpacking trip and asked “Do you own a red Toyota?”
We reported it to the police. I put plastic over the window in case it rains. Saturday I’ll go get three estimates. We’ll get the window fixed, give the police the serial numbers of the lenses, curse the SOB who did this, and move on with our lives. If the police recover the lenses or catch the guy who did this I’ll consider it a miracle.
I want to replace the 70-300mm lens as soon as we get the insurance money. The other lenses I’m not too worried about. Life goes on.
NEXT MORNING: The camera bag was a Carter’s diaper bag. It wasn’t technicool black nylon and wasn’t emblazened with “Nikon” or “Lowe Pro.” It’s what I call a stealth camera bag. However, it might have looked like a big purse, which could have given the thief the idea to steal it. Here’s a picture of it from a trip to the Smokies last winter:
We were trying to remember if we set the car alarm and we’re pretty sure we did. If the alarm is set and you unlock the door with anything but the alarm fob you have five seconds to either put the key in the ignition or press the unlock button on the alarm fob before the alarm sounds. If the alarm didn’t go off when they smashed the window it would have gone off in five seconds after they unlocked the door.
So most likely they just had time to grab the bag. Then the alarm went off and they ran. That would explain why they didn’t take the radar detector or anything else (Melissa realized this morning that her checkbook was in the console between the seats), and why the glove compartment wasn’t even opened. Score one for alarm systems.
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Wow. That flat-out sucks, and I am sorry to hear it… At least you have insurance, and hopefully that will be sufficient to cover the costs. We just had a notification dropped off in our mailbox that our apartment complex has been having automobile break-ins as well, so this may be a Knoxville-wide, developing problem…
[rq=473534,0,blog][/rq]cybersecurity criticality
Dang I hate break-ins! I’m glad you have a smooth attitude about it. I’d be totally pissed! Someone broke into my Jeep one night in Phoenix for the crappy broken cd player in the dash. They simply ripped it out of the dash and didn’t bother cutting the wires. They pulled until wires or connectors broke and as a result took half of my wiring harness with them. Instead of replacing the radio, I had to replace all of the wiring and that Jeep never worked right again. It would have been difficult to not be physically violent with the person who did it, if I had caught them.
Hopefully this incident means you won’t have it happen to you for a long time, if ever again, statistically speaking.
Damn. Sorry to hear that. Keep an eye on craigslist. Odds are good they’re hoping to sell this stuff, and many of them are dumb enough to do it right out in the open …
[rq=474581,0,blog][/rq]Out of a newspaper’s ashes …
Thanks, guys. This makes me mad, but I’m doing my best to not let it get to me.
Bill, that sucks. They messed up my Toyota, too. Smashed out the window and crowbarred the stereo out of the dash. I never did fix the hole. Even before that the car was in POS territory, which is why I had dropped theft and collision coverage. I just sort of shoved a different stereo into the hole.
Bob, watching Craig’s List is a great idea. I’ll do that. eBay, too.
I definitely feel your pain on this one. We had the same thing happen last Monday, except it was a Garmin Zumo 550 GPS that was stolen. We were tired from a long trip and forgot to take it off the dashboard. The worst part about losing that GPS is that it had survived a really bad crash I had last December. Any replacement I get won’t have the nifty asphalt gouges in it like my old one did.
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