Blessed by the Potato

I got my car back this morning (7 am, ugh). When I was cleaning it up, I found a ton of clues that the cops just don’t care about (I know no one was hurt, so they’re not exactly putting their best man on the case, but you’d think they’d bag some evidence just in case they caught someone else red-handed and wanted to pin this on them, too).

First off, there was a razor blade left on the passenger side. It was one of the 1″ wide disposable construction tool type razors, with 3 overlapping fingerprints clearly on it. I know 3 overlapping isn’t as good as 1 clear one, but you’d think the cops would take what they could get. As I mentioned before, there were McDonald’s wrappers and a cup in the back seat and on the floor on the passenger’s side. There were towels in there, though I’m not sure if they came from my bag of towels in the trunk that was on it’s way to the humane society that was ripped apart, or if they were the thief’s towels. Underneath, there was a brown button (the kind with no holes through it that sew on from an attachment on the back) and half a brick. The driver’s side door had a partial and very muddy boot print on the inside. The stereo when I got it was off, but as soon as I turned it on it was set to level 18 (full blast, essentially) with no CD inside (my CD had been taken and/or thrown out the window).

I know I’m not a cop, and I care a little bit more than not at all, but to me that sort of says “hey, this car was stolen and used to rob a house in a new subdivision, or one that was being renovated.” Sure, it could be that the brick wasn’t from a construction site that night (it could have been used as a hammer to drive out the door lock before the car ever left my lot), and the mud could be from some drug haven by the river, and the whole thing was just for a joy ride and to be destructive… But who steals an old Honda Accord for a joy ride?

Also, the repair shop or locksmith stole my vicegrips (they were there when I got my stuff out of the car).

Ben’s right, my post did deserve more profanity! I just hadn’t had a chance to see my car to see exactly what those fuckers did to it, so it hadn’t really sunk home yet. I took a few pictures with my camera phone, I’ll see if I can get them on here.

But basically, they just trashed the inside (as you’d expect from someone with so little respect for someone else’s property that they’d break in and steal it). Both front seats have been damaged with puncture marks. The ashtray was torn out (presumably to get at the $45 emergency gas money I keep kept there). The glove compartment was emptied. They had McDonald’s and threw the wrappers and cups all over the backseat. They took my bag full of towels from the trunk and ripped it apart (what, thinking I kept my laptop in a bag full of towels or something?). I keep a tub of road salt in the trunk for emergencies — that was dumped all over the trunk, and then my windshield washer fluid likewise opened and dumped on that to make a congealed salty wreck of my trunk. The poker set was stolen (but the frisbee, thankfully, was not).

Just what the fuck!!?!?!

Edit: The radio was left. Also, about the timing: I left my apartment around 12:30 yesterday, and saw the car was gone — the cops called my parents at 12:47 (just a few minutes before I got back upstairs after talking to my landlord).

Update: Here’s a picture of the broken ignition.

Also, I’m not sure how far the car was actually driven. I thought I filled up in Toronto before coming back to London, which would have left me with about a half a tank of gas — it was sitting at 1/4 full in the lot there, with 380 km on the trip meter (I reset it when I fill up, and I think it should have been at around 300 km when it was stolen). So, that could have been a fair bit of driving with a lot of idling; an outcome that would fit well with my supervisor’s scenario of the car being stolen to commit a few robberies and then being dumped.