Technology

Is a wonderful thing.

When I called to cancel my debit card, the nice lady at the bank checked for any transactions.

Whoever stole all my stuff attempted to use my card at the ATM at a nearby (like, a block and a half away) convenience store. Three times. They did get money off the other card, but we canceled it in time for the bank to not hold us responsible for the charges.

The first and second times were spread out, too, so there's either two chances for the security cameras to have caught the guy (or gal) coming in, or there's a nice long stretch for it to have caught them while they hung around in the store for about three hours.

Hopefully, they got a good picture. Then the nice officers can just go get a warrant and slap the guy in jail. It wasn't that much, money wise, but for me, it's the principle of the matter. I'd very much love five minutes alone with the asshole that did this, but I know that isn't going to happen.

Still... it's a nice fantasy.

Edit: What idiot decided that the convenience store security cameras didn't need to cover the ATM??? We'll find out tomorrow if there were any other charges to either card. It's very confusing, on the one hand I hope there aren't, because that's less money the bank is going to have to get back somehow (yay fraud protection, I'm not liable) and on the other hand, if they just got the cash from the ATM then they didn't use either card anywhere that a security camera could get a good picture of their face, which means it will be that much harder to catch the bastard.

And if one more person tries to sing me happy birthday today, I'm going to kill them. Thanks to this I'm seriously considering becoming one of those women who don't have birthdays.

Victim

It's amazing how much impact a single word can have. Most of my life I've been striving to keep that label the hell off of me.

I've used phrases like "With the way I look, I might as well have Victim stamped across my forehead."

I've advocated self defense (loudly) and told people to be smart, use their heads.

And last night, I was an idiot. A complete, and utter fool.

I picked the kids up from daycare, and it was hot, so I left my windows down on my car. I wasn't sure if I'd be taking them to CM's house or if he was coming to pick them up, and I didn't want the kids, or me, getting a case of heat stroke on the way over, if we took my car.

Well, CM picked the kids up, and I promptly forgot about my windows being down.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I thought about it. And instead of getting up, throwing on a bath robe, and going out to secure my vehicle like I should have, I thought "it's not going to rain tonight" and rolled over and went to sleep.

When I woke up this morning, my roommate informed me that my trunk was open.

Yeah, my car was ransacked.

XM Radio, gone.

Bookbag, gone. Although they were nice enough to dump out all of my books before they took the bag.

Wallet, gone. That one hurts the most, it had my driver's license, debit cards, concealed carry permit, and social security card in it.

Tried to take my car stereo but they couldn't get it out. I need to remember to thank my brother for putting it in correctly when he did it, they didn't have the tools to get it out of the mounting.

I was all right until I remembered that one of the debit cards was to an account that isn't mine. Then I felt like an absolute heel. That one has already been canceled, and I'll be canceling mine as soon as I can get ahold of someone at the bank.

Once I got the debit card taken care of, I was back to being pissed off about it, until the officer used that word.

A single word, and it was all I could do to keep from bursting into tears right then and there. The only thing that saved me was that another part of me was wanting to slap the officer for calling me a victim.

But, I am. A victim of a crime, through my own stupidity. Might as well get used to it, as much as I dislike it.

Hell of a way to start my birthday.