My poor car

My pride and joy - in better times - next to a concrete silo. I have been told it is the "car of architects" but I am no architect so make of that what you will

I planned to do something fun or interesting today but a group member not pulling their weight led me to go into uni and do some last-minute assignment things with the other group member (who is obviously super dedicated, judging by their willingness to go to uni on a Sunday). I'm not a fan of evening public transport and had to do grocery shopping anyway so I drove into uni and parked in Cardigan Street near the VicRoads, which in retrospect was really dumb, because my car got broken into. They pulled out the driver's side lock barrel completely and obviously attempted to look for valuable items (of which I have none, because I am poor) which resulted in them just throwing random items into the passenger side footwell before legging it (I assume they didn't casually saunter away although they might have depending on how cocky they were). I can imagine how frustrated they would've been, after all that effort, to find the centre console of my car contains a tea towel, a keychain with a green fish on it, 10 Euro cents and a broken hair tie.

I went to the North Melbourne police station afterwards and reported it, and the police officer there mentioned that it was the second break-in reported that afternoon, with the first one taking place in the same general vicinity on Cardigan Street. Apparently it was the same modus operandi too. Unfortunately, the other person whose car was broken into lost a substantial amount of stuff, so that resulted in the construction of a crime scene and the taking of fingerprints. I am pretty glad I keep nothing of value in my car. I can't help but wonder if the fact that my car is a Saab stopped them from doing anything worse: if they planned to hotwire it, they'd have to specialise in Nordic vehicles which situate the ignition beneath the handbrake and have a clamshell bonnet which opens outwards/downwards as opposed to the more typical flip-right-up kind of thing 99.99% of cars have.

I called my mother afterwards and her response was something along the lines of "I bet it was those housing commission types" and I wanted to remind her we lived in public housing for 20 years. I am mostly just surprised that nobody in the relatively dense and well-used street noticed, since there were two huge house parties raging nearby and a lot of students roaming about, undoubtedly celebrating the end of semester. The other part that bothers me is that I've lived in Sunshine, Newport, St. Albans East, and Footscray, yet my car gets broken into in Carlton.

This, combined with the fact that I have 5 assignments due in the next week, plus the migraine incident, makes me feel like I could do a pretty convincing reenactment of Falling Down (as in, the film, if you haven't seen it then please do). Oh well. I guess it's also funny in that the people who broke into my car most likely have more money than me given I only have $16 to my name right now*. Next time I should put a little sign up that says "Don't rob me, we are not all that different. In some ways, I am much like you"

*Edited to say that this is all the more relevant given the part they broke in order to gain access costs $900. I thought the police officer was joking when he asked me to estimate the damage to the key barrel and I said "I don't know, I'm no car parts expert" and he said "I reckon it'd be around $1000". 

Second edit: being poor isn't so bad when you are related to a car enthusiast/typical wog. My brother just came over and opened up the driver's side door to find the plastic ring which holds the barrel in place - not broken, just a little loose, which to me demonstrates that the perpetrator must be familiar with this activity