Darcy's Paris Blog

Not my best day ever

Well, today pretty much sucked. It started off as a normal day, except that I was running slightly late and the traffic was horrendous on the way to the office. As I was sitting there on the A1 highway minding my own business, trying to find something good on the radio, two guys broke the passenger window of my car, stole my purse, and ran. Very scary. It’s a cliché, but what they say is true; you don’t really know what’s happening until it’s done. When I heard the crashing glass at first I wasn’t sure what was going on, until I saw a guy halfway into my car. I screamed, he took off, and I watched him and another guy run across a lane of traffic (as I was in the middle lane,) off the shoulder, and into the wooded area just off the highway. For a split second, I thought about going after them, but I figured: #1) that was probably stupid; they looked young and probably therefore unarmed, but you never know; and #2) they already had enough of a head start on me to get away, anyway. So I just sat there catching my breath, realizing what happened, and thinking of all that was gone – the bag I loved, my digital camera with a few weeks of photos, my iPod, the company cell phone, my wallet with about 60 euros in cash and almost all my cards, some make-up, my map book, my French phrase book, etc…. – I sat there ticking off everything while I watched the woman in the right-hand lane just stare at me through my now-non-existent passenger window. A nice man, though, in a car behind her asked if he could call the police for me, to which I obviously said yes. We pulled off together at the next exit, where he was very nice but told me that the police said I just had to go in. He was very nice, but he just shrugged and said that they (the kids who did it) need money, like “what can you do?” I raced back to the office, ran inside, and spent the rest of the morning on the phone with every bank card, credit card, and calling card company, canceling everything before the kids (bastards, as my colleague told me to refer to them) could access any of my accounts. After that was done, mid-morning, Sophie and I went to the local police, since her car had been broken into in the NI parking garage over Easter weekend, and she needed to go, anyway. The cops were very nice and helpful – I wasn’t expecting to get my stuff back, but I needed this police report to start the insurance process for the window and reimbursement. The cop said, not surprisingly, that they target single women, and they target people in nice cars – bingo. He actually said “welcome to the 93” (the area where it happened.” Apparently to the cops, this is common, even on the highway.

So Sophie and I trucked back to the office. Everyone was very friendly and supportive – they were pretty shocked, too, I think, with the violent way that it happened. Everyone was trying to help me in every way they could; the IT guy even offered to take my car to get the window fixed for me if I didn’t feel like driving. I felt like it was partially my fault. Sophie had warned me about people trying to open the door and get your purse, but I was naïve enough to think that it wouldn’t happen on the highway, and that they wouldn’t break the window to get in. Everyone all day told me to put my purse in the trunk, which actually started making me a little crazy – either you should’ve told me this before, or you should do it yourself! (since everyone told me to do it but admitted they themselves don’t.) Ah, well. The afternoon was basically useless, except going to the window fix-it place, which took an eternity, and then I just went home. Enough shit for one day.

One smart thing I’d done on the day I forgot my wallet at home (and therefore had a minor panic about it being stolen) was that I took out one credit card and left it at home, “just in case.” Thank God. For dinner I went to my favorite Indian restaurant, where I knew it would be quiet, where they’d be super-nice to me as always, and where they’d accept my credit card sans puce (without the chip) with no problems. Just what the doctor ordered.

posted by Darcy @ 10:40 PM