Bad Ridgecrest

That title should probably be "Bad Me" but I'm still cross, so I'm going to blame Ridgecrest.

We had such a nice day today, drove out to Trona late in the afternoon to go swimming, ate dinner at the Trails Drive-In, and then drove back to Ridgecrest for the "Night on the Town" (sort of like the old Wine Walks, except much less well attended). We went to one store that I like and bought some chocolate and scone mix, and then we drove to the Historic USO building, because I wanted to get a book. Baby B said he was tired (it was about 8 pm), so we agreed that Rocket Boy would stay in the car with him, and Baby A would go inside with me. But then Baby B changed his mind, so we all went in together. We were inside for 10 or 15 minutes, and then went back to the car.

The first thing I noticed was my purple water bottle lying in the parking lot by the car next to us. "What is my water bottle doing there?" I asked. The second thing I noticed was that my window was down. "Did I leave my window down?" I never leave the windows down. Cracked, yes, but not down. But there was all that fussing when we were getting out of the car about who was going and who was staying. Maybe I forgot. The car was unlocked, too. Maybe I was tired. The third thing I noticed was that there was a spark plug on my seat. That certainly wasn't there before. The fourth thing I noticed was that my camera was gone.

Long story short, it seems pretty clear that someone was walking by, noticed the open window, looked inside, reached in to grab the camera, the camera strap caught on the water bottle and yanked it out of the car (or he grabbed both the camera and the water bottle, but then tossed the water bottle), and a spark plug fell out of his shirt pocket when he was leaning over.

Rocket Boy went back inside the USO building to report the theft and call the police. The police wanted the serial number, so we went home and found it and called them back. I was a basket case on the phone, explaining all about how it was my fault, and the lady is saying, yes, that's fine, and what does the camera look like? And then I had to talk to a police officer, who asked me, "Do you want me to investigate this?" and I said "Well, how could you investigate it, I'm sure it was just some kid," and he said "Then do you just want me to make a note of it in the log so you can report it to your insurance agency?" and I said, "Oh, I'm not going to report it to my insurance agency, it's four and a half years old, it isn't worth anything now," and he said again, "So do you want me to investigate it?" and finally I paid attention to what he was saying and I said "OK, I guess so." So then Rocket Boy had to take the camera's paperwork down to the police station and they copied all the information down for their national database, and now if the camera shows up anywhere in the US, it'll register as stolen. Not that it will.

I guess I need to get a new camera. The old one was a gift, when boos were brand new babies. I think I took pretty good pictures with that camera, but I never actually read the manual, so I never even learned how to delete pictures from it, or use any of the special features. I read the manual tonight, in penance.

Bad Ridgecrest. How dare someone steal a camera sitting on the front seat of an unlocked car with an open window? Might as well be in LA.