Nov 20th, 2008
The Value of Insurance; the Disgust of Violation; the Salvation of Perspective
On Monday, I returned to my truck after a long day of social work to find it had been broken into and someone had attempted to steal it. My things were not missing, but the steering column, ignition, and dash were damaged and the truck was not drivable.
Fortunately, a friend wouldn’t let me wait alone for the tow truck and ended up driving me home. After a misadventure in towing, GEICO estimates the damage–so far–at over $1300. In addition, the truck is likely down until at least the day after Thanksgiving (anyone want to lay bets that the truck won’t be ready that day?). I’ve been using my sister’s car since she’s been out of town, but she returns tomorrow, so I lined up a rental car for about as cheap as possible–$225 from Hotwire.com for 11 days, with 5% ShopDiscover cash back.
So far my out of pocket cost will be at least $725, and they still haven’t figured out exactly why the truck won’t start anymore, and over a week without my truck.
My mental and emotional cost is considerably higher. As was pointed out in a comment to a post on Get Rich Slowly where JD chronicled his vehicle being burglarized a second time, there’s a feeling of violation that comes along with a break in.
However, as said in a line from a movie I watched this past month, when you lose something, you also receive something. A friend who I often complain about for various reasons wouldn’t let me wait in the rain alone for the police and the tow and drove me home, miles out of her way and I have an emergency fund for exactly these kinds of situations. I don’t really feel anger toward the individuals who broke into my truck; instead, I feel sorry for them being so desperate.
There’s all kinds of other things going on in my life, many professional which I can’t talk about very openly, that make me realize that as bad as things were, things could be much worse. And as American Thanksgiving approaches, as one of my former ministers at the temple said, every day in life is an opportunity for giving thanks.
We now return you to your regular episode of Uncommon Cents.
Wow. That’s a bummer. Hope things return to normal soon. We were broken into when I was a kid and you never feel quite the same.
Thanks, Ron.
It’s definitely a less than thrilling thing. Combine that with my being sick and a lot of professional issues right now and while it’s not been the best week… I can’t help but feel like I have many reasons to be thankful, and sorry for whomever was desperate enough to try and steal my truck. My pocketbook’s not happy, but that’s just how it goes…
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Our truck was broken into a few weeks ago, but they were after what was inside not the vehicle. I wish they had stolen the car, at least it was insured, the tools inside aren’t valuable enough for the homeowners policy to pay out. I hope you get your truck back soon, nothing seems to get done around the holidays.
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