A Rude Awakening

Friday morning as I hurriedly left the house on my way to work, I opened the door to my truck and stared for a moment, puzzled at what I was seeing. Papers, napkins and tissues strewn all over the front seats, the glove box and center console wide open. The scene reminded me of my driveway a week earlier, when a bear had ripped open our garbage and scattered it all over the yard. This however, was not the work of a bear - though I'll admit, it was my first frantic thought, and I actually gave the backseat a quick once over before slamming the door and running back in the house! Rational thought was obviously not at work if I seriously considered the possibility of discovering a bear hiding in the backseat.


So after regaining my senses and realizing that a real live person had broken into my truck and not a 500 pound bear, I was brave enough to go back out and check it out.


Lucky for me, but not so lucky for the would-be thief, I've got nothing even remotely valuable in my truck. I really hope he enjoyed rifling through the used tissues, napkins and antibacterial handwipes that I had been too lazy to empty from my cup holder last week. For some reason, he thought maybe I had some gold bullion tucked away underneath all of that. And though he expected to find some valuable treasure in the centre console underneath the cache of fast food napkins, alas, all he found was an empty lip gloss box, a hair elastic and a dried up tube of vanilla scented antibacterial hand gel. He even pulled apart the owner's manual, apparently looking for dollar bills tucked away between the pages! Boy, did he pick the wrong vehicle, because that glove box didn't even contain a nice consolation prize like a pen!


In all seriousness though, I just can't believe the nerve! To come into our yard and ransack my truck parked right next to our main entrance! It's unsettling. Even though I'm sure it was a couple of young punks, it's still had me on my guard all weekend. It's made me think twice before opening the door at night, and before getting out of my truck when I get home after dark. (Right Kar', don't lie to the nice people....most nights you're in bed before dark.)

Anyways, I guess it's taught me a lesson. I used to lock my vehicle each and every time I got out of it, and for some reason I got out of the habit. (I blame Dino...but I digress.) Society has certainly changed from the one I knew as a kid - where we never locked our doors at night and felt safe in our own homes and neighbourhoods. Where kids could stay out and play til way after dark in the summertime and all their parents had to do was yell their name out the front door and they'd come running.

I wonder.... is it still like that anywhere in the world?