Cops and Robbers

Why would anyone steal a shopping cart? It's like stealing a two-year-old. ~ Erma Bombeck

Today I was at the gym with my friend Claire and we did our usual routines, first cardio then a total muscle workout. It generally takes an hour to do everything and it was a really good workout (I upped my weights today).

We went back to the locker room to get my old, dingy jacket that I always bring to the gym and alas, it wasn't there. Not only that, my house keys, gym ID/address, Claire's car keys were gone as well. Before you start asking, yea we forgot to lock it....but seriously, it's just a dingy jacket!

The people at the desk are friggin' morons and of course have no clue...plus there is a liability notice everywhere. So pretty much we are screwed. Claire's first thought is to rush to check her car and thankfully it was still there.

It was a sunny but breezy day and I figured if we hightailed it we could make it to Claire's house and back in about 90 minutes. I was ready to take the walk to get her spare car keys and even started walking through the parking lot. "I just don't want to leave my car,"she said. She has one of those alarm thingies on her car and all the robber would have to do is walk through the parking lot and keep beeping the button until it alarmed and then he could drive away with her car.

Then I noticed a cop driving through the lot and flagged him down. We explained the situation to him and royally played the damsel in distress card. He couldn't watch the car for us, but suggested driving Claire home and back to get her keys while I waited with the car. (This was what I was gunning for anyway but was pleased that he suggested it.)

She got to ride passenger side with chatty police officer #195 who was really friendly and helpful. He waited for her to go to her leasing office, get her spare house key, go to her apartment, find her spare car key and then brought her back to me. The whole thing took about 20 minutes. He took the whole Protect and Serve thing to a whole new level. And we are both utterly grateful for that (as well as our feet!)

Meanwhile on my end, when Claire dropped me off home, I stopped at the neighbour's, got spare keys and then had to get my uncle to change the locks when he got home. So no would be robbers are getting into our house tonight, it's sealed up tight like a fortress.

Tomorrow we are going to get her alarm re-coded before we even head to the gym, then change our gym access cards as well. I'm still stunned that someone would walk away with a dirty gym jacket but I guess they were shooting for something more. Hopefully we have foiled their nefarious plans!

Yes people, I do learn from my mistakes, I will be leaving my next dingy gym jacket in the car along with all my other stuff. But I like to think that the whole situation was handled with remarkable ease, good luck and clear-headedness.

Thanks to Officer #195....thank you soooo much! (I knew cops were great for something besides writing tickets;)