Wrath

A few years ago, in the cold of mid-winter, I got up early one morning to start my car when I realized that my car had been vandalized in the middle of the night. The drivers' side rearview mirror had been smashed, and parts of the plastic housing appeared to have been chipped off with a screwdriver. Broken plastic and parts were scattered directly below, and a large piece of the housing appeared to have been thrown across the street. Examining the damage, it appeared that this was no accident; whoever committed this act of vandalism was certainly angry at something, someone, or me directly.

To have this act committed against me only transferred the vandal's anger to me. It cost me a few hundred dollars to replace the mirror, not to mention the pain I felt that a person had a vendetta against me. I reported the incident to the police, but I knew there wasn't much the police could do.

Yesterday, while at the office, I managed to glance at my car outside the window. With the light of a new sunrise, I noticed that my car had been vandalized once again. I darted outside in the brisk air to take a closer look. It appeared that some idiot (who needs only to be referred as unprintable adjectives) jumped on the hood of my car. There were two large dents in the hood, and the paint had been scratched. Livid would hardly be the term to describe my mood upon discovering the damages. Emotions of wrath and vengeance were coursing through my blood, and all I could hear was my evil side cursing "I'm going to put that son of a bitch in a wheelchair!"

I managed to calm myself down over the course of the day, and by a gesture of kindness, by boss offered me the loan of his dent-puller, a large suction cup designed to pop out minor dents. I figured that I could give it a shot, and perhaps save myself the trouble of visiting an autobody repair shop. I spent a half-an hour trying to pull out the dents with the tool, but my efforts were proving fruitless. It was like trying to pop out a dent in a plastic pop bottle -- you only manage to move it around. This was going to cost me money.

So after work, I went to an autobody shop to get an estimate of the damages. The technician who gave me the estimate explained that the dents cannot be hammered out, and that I would be looking at buying a new hood for my car. Even with buying an after-market hood, I am looking at $650 to erase this senseless act of violence from my car. Ouch.

It seems that every year I am spending between three hundred and a thousand bucks on vehicle maintenance. This has got to stop. I am sick of people's disregard for other's valuables and/or property. I don't want to have to resort to sleeping in my car with a baseball bat to deter further damages. Perhaps I should consider buying an alarm for my car. I hear those things aren't effective anyway.

Just for once, I'd love to catch that knuckle-walking troglodyte in the act.