Broken Glass … NOT Broken Dreams

Just under a week ago I was in Saint Louis, Missouri. I was staying in an Air BnB with Ryan downtown. After picking him up at the airport we found a parking structure that my car fit in (not always the easiest being around 6’9” with my Thule cover on). Saturday morning I realized I didn’t have the right shoes for the walking we were doing that day. We got ready and headed to my car and were welcomed by glass everywhere…. oh and no driver’s side window anymore.

My first thought…. “Are you kidding me?” (with a bit more colorful language) followed by “What did they take?” and “What do I do now?”

So first question. No this isn’t a joke. This actually happened. The next two questions I approached simutaneously. I called my parents (because yes I’m still a little girl who sometimes needs her parents).

With them on the phone I started to look through things to figure out what’s gone. My dash cam was not attached to the windshield anymore so I assumed that they saw that and it’s why they broke in. Well they removed it from the windshield but didn’t take it.

Now I know I’m not the neatest person in the world. But I swear I’m not this messy….

The person who broke into my car went through EVERYTHING and was not nice enough to put things back where he found them.

Starting in the back seat… I have a container that has all my camping cooking stuff. He went through a lot of that including opening containers you can’t see through and opening picnic blankets. Then he went through the bags I have on the floor in the back . . . with all my food. Lastly in the back pocket of the passenger seat I have all my extra plastic bags. Well they were everywhere.

Looking rather quickly nothing seems to be gone from the back. Just a disaster.

Now to approach the front part. I had random stuff in the pockets on both doors, which of course were thrown with everything else. Everything from my glovebox was removed… including extra keys that go to my Thule cover on top of my Subaru and to the safe I have in my car.

Now one thing I wish is that I could have seen their face while going through my center console, which currently has 120+ Jr Ranger badges and patches. They took a majority of those out and threw them with everything else. They even went through the glasses holder and found pockets I didn’t know existed.

Long story longer…. NOTHING was taken.

Within 3 hours of finding Black Beauty, we had filed a police report, found nothing missing, dropped my car off with Above & Beyond Glass (glass wouldn’t be delivered until Monday) and were getting lunch.

They were looking for three things. 1. Cash 2. Electronics (cameras, laptops, etc) 3. Guns

I have learned on this trip to never leave my camera or anything valuable in my car (see Bad Things Happen and Silver Linings on how I learned my lesson). And relatively, I lucked out again. Yes I had to deal with the hassle of getting my window fixed and cleaning everything up, but all in all, nothing was taken no one was harmed, and I got free parking for the weekend LOL. I can also say I did not freak out or cry once and just dealt with what I was handed.

Once again, I will not let this deter me from my plans or my dreams. I am over nine months on this journey. I have been to 43 states, met many many wonderful people and only had two interactions with bad people. Luckily, I didn’t even have to meet them! I have to say that’s a pretty good feeling and thank you again to all the amazing  people I have met along the way who continue to give me faith in humanity.