Car got ‘mugged’.  Someone broke a window, did a smash-and-grab and split while the alarm whined in the background and the security cameras recorded shadows.  I guess we lost about $5-600.00 in the incident.  It could have been much worse. 

It is getting fixed as I write this.  But not by ICBC.  We have Comprehensive but it has a $300.00 deductible.  “That’s OK, Sally.  They’ll cover the lost Xmas presents, small car inverter, two Swiss army knives and miscellany that seems to missing, right?” 

Wrong.  Seems ICBC no longer covers contents.  Seems people made claims all the time when their car got broken into.  Imagine that!  But ICBC didn’t tell me.  They charged me for what-I-thought-was-coverage but changed the rules.  Quel Suprise! 

“Oh, you can claim on your homeowner’s insurance!” the nice sweet, young thing chirped at me on the ICBC dial-a claim-number.  “I don’t have homeowners insurance.  I live remote.  No insurance.  And, anyway, why would an insurance company covering my home have to pay?” 

“Because we don’t.  Sorry.  Tee hee, hee, chirp, giggle.  Have a great day!” 

This happened after a day of driving.  We went from Richmond to Abbotsford and then to North Vancouver to have dinner with friends.  At the end of the dinner, Roger showed me how he was thwarting the local thieves by chaining his boat trailer, removing the wheels, chaining the engines to the boat, covering the whole back end in a plywood box and running ‘fake’ security wires to the house.  I smiled, commented on how thorough he was and privately thought to myself that he was getting just a smidge paranoid.  “That Roger worries too much”, I thought.  “Who would take a used boat and motor parked in a carport right under the house?!”

Well, It seems a car with an alarm parked in a hotel’s parking lot and filled with Xmas presents (pajamas!) and such isn’t safe either.  Now I think Roger should add a few Doberman’s to the security package.  The lower mainland is not a warm and fuzzy place for us right now.  Looking forward to leaving. 

But we’ll do a bit more re-shopping first, of course.

Funny, you know.  I have been writing this blog for close to 100 entries and, much to my surprise, found myself writing about happiness and nice things, health and community and small accomplishments.  I was a bit worried that I was sounding a bit to happy and sunny.  It is not my nature.  I wanted to be real.

Well, this break-in gave me the material I just wasn’t getting up at Read.  A slice of the dark side, a bit of nasty, an encounter with the ugly.

I prefer sunny.