Gym, Cycle, and a little B&E Action

Interesting visit to Gold's today. I got there after lunchtime, parked, and went inside for fun and exercise. The people watching was pretty good today, by the way. Started off with 25 minutes of cycling, and the legs felt great after spinning away for a while. I saw Marty while I was on the bike, and we chatted a bit about how I should organize the various exercises in my routine, specifically the upper body stuff. He gave me some great tips, which I utilized later on in the workout. Anyway, I got in a good stretching session after the cycle, and decided to save the core stuff until I got home, since none of the exercises on my schedule required gear at the gym. I did a quick 3 exercise set of leg weights since I didn't get to the gym yesterday (quad extensions, hamstring curls, seated calf raises). That was mostly just to finish up the leg rehab going into tomorrow's 16 miler. I finished things off with a set of four upper body exercises, using Marty's tip of going from big groups (bench press or seated rows) to smaller muscle groups (tricep pushdowns or bicep curls). I also did the exercises much slower today, and that made them a lot more intense. Who knew? So, I was feeling pretty good about my day until I went out to the parking lot.

I bopped up to my Tahoe, clicked the locks, and noticed a Handi-Wipes container on my floorboard. I thought that was a little weird, and in sort of the same moment, I saw that the center console was wide open, my checkbook was gone from the cubby hole in the dash, and there was a copious amount of car passenger window glass covering the floor and passenger seat. Yep, my car got busted into in the parking lot at Gold's. Broad daylight. Between 1:20 and 2:00pm (when someone reported it who was coming through the parking lot to work out). Well, S#$@! I uttered a handful of colorful descriptions of the jerks who committed this offense against me and my property, tossed my workout bag into the back seat, locked the car (that was actually funny to me....later), and stomped back inside to report the incident. Nothing else had been taken, so I could fix all the problems, but it still honked me off.

I filled out the form that Gold's had (so that they could get their closed circuit camera evidence, if any, to the police), and started calling people. First, car insurance, and got the claim started. Next, to Mary Anne to get the name of our bank contact. She didn't have it, but Sarah found the little refrigerator magnet with the business card on it, and I stopped payment on the checks that were in the book (just four checks, but still...). Next, conversation with the property crimes policeman who interviewed me via phone and gave me a case number. Next, back to the insurance company with the police information. Then, it was time to wait on CSI: Austin. Marty waited around to see if he could do anything for me, which was really nice. Thanks, Marty! I told him he just needed to be at the run on Saturday.

Time passed. I got hooked up with the automotive glass people and made an appointment for Monday morning (that's as early as I could get in), found out that this would be on me, since the cost of the window is far less than our deductible, and went to get a snack. CSI showed up an hour or so later, and I amused myself by chatting with her while she searched for fingerprints (she found two). She said that the two questions that she gets all the time are: (1) Does that fingerprint dust come off my car? (yes), and (2) Where's your Hummer? (only on TV, kids, only on TV).

So, except for really making me angry at the hoodlums that decided to perpetrate this crime, the tale will have a reasonably happy ending. I had some library cards and some store cards (those cards that give you "points" when you swipe them in) in the checkbook, along with a couple of checks that I was going to deposit (birthday and anniversary gift checks). According to my banker, it should be almost impossible for someone to cash those checks, since they'd have to have ID showing they were me, but still...

The moral of this tale? Don't leave anything of value in your vehicle at the gym or at the lake or any site where you leave your vehicle behind while you run/hike/bike/exercise. Lesson learned. Along with the knowledge that all of us are but one thin layer of window glass from having our personal pace and property invaded and violated.