A personal story of theft, anger, and violation
By Craig Allan, Contributor
Last week was a tough one for me. Starting from August 30 I was beginning a streak where I would be working every day between my two jobs until September 10. That’s 12 straight days of work. That, along with writing four articles for the Other Press and working on my resume for a promising job prospect was going to make this stretch one of the hardest times of my life, but this difficult run would be made even tougher due to the fact that I was robbed.
It was the night of September 4. I had just gotten back from working one of my two jobs—a retail clothing store. This was the beginning of the toughest run of the stretch for me, as the period between 4:30 pm on September 4 and 4:30 pm on September 6 were going to be the worst. I would be working 25 of the next 48 hours. Arriving home at 10:00 pm and sliding on my backpack over my strained right elbow (that had been causing me tremendous pain over the last few days), I went inside and frantically leapt to my computer to send off the finished articles for the Other Press, and tried to get to bed by 10:30 pm. I had to get up at 6:30 am the next morning in preparation for a 13-and-a-half-hour day split between my job at the retail store and my job at a local movie theatre. It was during this night that it happened.
I went to my car at 7:30 am, condensation covering all the windows, and I opened the door to my car to find a troubling sight. Items in the centre console were now strewn across the driver’s seat, and a piece of paper from the closed glove compartment was on the passenger seat floor. I quickly realized that someone had rummaged through my car. I must have not locked it! Taking stock of the situation, I was able to determine the only things stolen was a pair of sunglasses that might as well had been 1000 years old, and an A&W coupon for a free burger and root beer. I couldn’t do much about it due to the schedule I had for the day, so I just had to leave it. But the incident would not leave me.
As the days went by, I started feeling more and more angry even though nothing of value was stolen. Hell, my Sirius radio plug in was still there, and my Spider-Man 2 promotional hat I got back in 2004. That would have been the real loss! Also, I found four dollars in change in the back seat. That’s worth more than the sunglasses. What a stupid robber, I said to myself with delusional fervour. Still, the incident ate at me. Someone went into my space. Someone stole my property. It wasn’t the fact that nothing of true value was stolen, it was the fact that I felt violated. A couple days later, when my schedule slowed, I went looking to ease my anger and sadness. I called the police non-emergency number to report it. I knew nothing could be done but I was hoping it would make me feel better. It didn’t.
My hope in writing about this is that maybe it will provide some catharsis. Maybe I will be able to move on. The truth is the only thing I can do is move on, try to feel better, and calm my anger by hoping this crook stares into the sun wearing my sunglasses not realizing they are old and ineffective. Maybe the bastard will blind themselves due to their cockiness.
