Tuesday, the 8th of November, dawned just like any other day: chilly and overcast. I stumbled through my morning routine as usual, was moderately awake by the time I went to the kitchen for breakfast, delivered die Kinder safely to school, then went to my own class. I arrived early enough to get a parking spot right next to Uni Wien, something that I'm not always lucky enough to get. I went in to class.
I lingered for a few minutes after class to ask the professor something, then headed out to my car, as always slightly apprehensive to see if I had a parking ticket. Technically you're not supposed to park anywhere in Vienna for more than two hours at a time although I see people do it often; I always park for two and a half hours (though I leave enough parking slips to cover that time period) for this class.
Good news: no parking ticket. Bad news: no right rear window. Well, that's not exactly true. The window was still there, partially, but it was thoroughly shattered. I looked immediately for the thing that I already knew would be missing, and sure enough, my purse was gone. Now, before I go any further, please, let me state here and now that I know that I was an idiot for leaving my purse in the car, there are no excuses, really. Okay, are you convinced? Well, you should be. Trust me, it's not something I'll be doing again, ever. Heck, I knew it was something that you're not supposed to do, but I had it well hidden under the seat; I didn't think that getting my car broken into was something that would actually happen to me, especially in Vienna, such a safe city, on a very public road. I mean, heck, my iPod was never stolen out of my car in the Corners and that was considerably sketchier than Vienna! Goodbye wallet, my favorite (well, only) sunglasses, digital camera, and very sadly, my Baptist Med School ID - guess I won't ever be visiting that playground on the roof... Worse, it was not actually my car but the one that the family has given me to use.
I called the family, who told me to come in to the office, I called my parents (at about 4:45am for them - sorry Mom and Dad!) to start getting cards cancelled, I went across the street because I saw they had video cameras out front to see if they perhaps had any footage of the break-in (they didn't), then spent the rest of the afternoon filling out insurance paperwork, police reports, and continuing to deal with credit card arrangements. Not the absolute worst thing that could happen to me, but it was vey sobering and was (and still is) incredibly inconvenient and quite a hassle to deal with.
Luckily the family was very understanding about everything and I even had the car back by the next afternoon, complete with the service that it was due for and winter tires - both things I had scheduled to take care of at the end of the week. All things considered, it could have been much worse (and, imho, wasn't as bad as the minor fiasco this summer), but it's certainly something that I don't ever want to have happen to me again.
So, take it from lil' ol' innocent country me: Don't EVER leave your purse in the car. Ever. For any reason whatsoever. Just say 'NO'.
No comments:
Post a Comment