Over the last several years, we have had an issue with car break-ins in our church parking lot during our Sunday meetings. It is such a common problem for the area, that the police can do very little about it. Last year, we had a family who had their car loaded up, ready for a trip following the meetings, which was broken into. It was at Christmas, so there were a lot of presents, along with a few cameras, that were taken and never recovered. Our Ward has members who take turns patrolling the lot to discourage the vandalism and theft.
Unfortunately, the vandals struck again on Sunday. And even more unfortunately, it was Eric's truck they hit.
Eric had stopped at the church for just a few minutes to drop something off at the Stake offices. He probably wasn't even in the building for ten minutes. When he came outside he noticed his passenger side window was shattered. What was taken was his set of scriptures and his church bag which contained church documents, instructions, etc., and a $56 check for a local printing company.
The items taken were not monetarily valuable, but they were significant to Eric. He was devastated to lose his scriptures. They were from his mission, so were well-used and marked up. His patriarchal blessing and his mission tag were also in them.
We spent several hours driving around the neighborhood on Sunday, checking every shrub, ditch, and dumpster we could find, hoping to retrieve the items that surely would just be dumped. Eric talked to several local people about anything they saw, or asking where the kids tended to hang out. He stopped and talked to a homeless man (or nearly homeless, anyway) who had a sign on the side of the street, begging for help. They talked for quite a while, and he gave him some good leads. Finally Eric gave him everything that was in his wallet. It was only nine dollars, but hopefully it helped him some.
After that Eric walked around some questionable areas that are notorious for punks hanging out. He made me nervous, so I sat in the driver's seat, ready to honk the horn if needed, and with cell phone in hand!
Finally, defeated, we went home.
Today Eric replaced the window in his truck. He saved quite a bit of money by doing it himself. But he told me he was up for a lot of the night thinking about what happened.
It wasn't just the glass that was broken.
1 comment:
Ugh, that is so terrible! Thieves really have a penchant for taking the things that have little monetary value but are extremely precious anyway. I hope they go and burn their tongues on coffee or something and can't taste anything for a week.
Post a Comment