Beep. Beep.

I must say I have the WORST luck with cars ever. I mean everyone has the occasional fender bender but my luck really started back in 2007. I just had bought my first car on my own. I was home from college for the summer supervising a camp for teens with disabilities. I had a "late" night with girls at La Plaza and woke up to my mom yelling "ERIN THE COPS ARE HERE". I couldn't imagine why the cops were at my house for me. I stumble out of bed, and see a cop at the front door. He informs me that someone had called the police because they had noticed my car was broken into. This cop was taking this serious because this type of thing "never happens in this neighborhood". A detective came out and took all kinds of finger prints with a dusting kit. I didn't have the heart to tell the authorities all that was taken was my pool bag for camp which had a swim towel and a one piece swim suit. The worst part of all it was I kept finding glass in the car until the day the car was no longer mine.

3 years pass and nothing too exciting happens, except one major tire blow out from what looked like to me an anchor on the highway.

Oct 2009. My car had been paid off 2 full months and it felt great. I am coming home from KC for Oktoberfest. Trunk full of my clothes (you never know what type of clothes to pack with STL weather, my work therapy toys, and surprisingly Christmas presents) One of my girl friends was in PA school at SLU and they were having a trivia night at the SLU church basement to raise money for their program. I decided to sober drive a few of my girlfriends since I had a lot of my plate for the following morning. I had no time to unpack my trunk when I got back to St. Louis that night, so I went and picked up my girl friends and scurried off to SLU. I was really happy to get a close spot in front of the church. Trivia night was so fun.

I won a raffle basket. I won an auction basket. I had fun with all my friends. But when the trivia night was over I was ready to go. Everyone was pretty tipsy and I had a list running in my head of all the things I needed to do before Oktoberfest the next am. Sure enough I walk outside and my car isn't in my spot. The girls I was driving insisted I parked farther up. I knew they were wrong. I knew my car was stolen. I was in shock. Who steals cars? I didn't even have a cool car worth stealing. The city cops came. I was so in shock I just kept laughing. I think I was so in shock about everything in my truck that could be possibly be missing. I just kept telling myself whoever took my car wouldn't pop the trunk.

Now it's Sunday. I have to go back to KC to work which sucks because I do home health which means I drive my car all day. Also in my car was all my therapy supplies. So I hop on the amtrak with one little bag. Thank god my insurance covered a rental car. Thursday I get a call from the police. They find my car in north county. I asked the cop if my car is find. She said she didn't have time to look at it. I talk to the guy who towed my car. He thinks it will be just fine to drive back to Kansas City. I leave KC that day on the train to head back to St. Louis to pick up my car. I cannot keep thinking about the chances of whoever stole my car of them not looking in the trunk.

I don't get to see my car until Friday. I meet my insurance agent at the car lot. All the cars in this lot look like they are in terrible condition. I keep thinking maybe my car won't look like these other cars, I mean the tow truck drive did say I should be able to drive it back to KC. The first thing the agent says is "You're probably not going to like what you see". I walk up to my car and instantly see that the front wind shield has been hit multiple times with possibly huge rocks? Maybe bricks? I am not sure what the tow truck driver was thinking because there was NO way you could drive with that wind shield. Tears began to come to my eyes. I look in the window of my car, and it is literally ransacked. I open the door and smell a smell I have never smelled before. The agent says "heroin". I instantly feel violated. Someone stole what was mine and completely destroyed it. My interior was covered in mud. All my interior lights, stereo, ignition were gone. My glove box was filled with rocks, and there were rocks on the passenger side. My insurance agent informed me that my car was probably the get away car and they would smash a car's window with a rock, grab what they could and take off. A "smash and grab". I started finding stuff in my car that wasn't mine. I found a carnival cruise card with a girls name on it. I found her on facebook. All I could hope for was any information. She stated her car, along with 11 others, were broken into at Harry's that night my car was stolen. Needless to say my car was totaled.

I had to get back to Kansas City, and needed a car, so went to meet my uncle who works at Elco Chevy. I was depressed about my car, so shopping for a car was not fun. I had no opinion and was pretty much like give me whatever. I ended up with an 2008 Chevy Cobalt. Usually when people get a new car they excited, I on the other hand was pretty upset about all the things stolen out of my car. I drive home to get my stuff to go back to Kansas City. I walk in the door and my sister is a few strides behind me. She starts yelling "ERIN SOMEONE HIT YOUR CAR". I yell back "FUNNY". Then I hear her taking off running. Sure enough someone who was doing labor work in the neighborhood was lost, turning around in my drive way, and backed his flat bed truck into the side of my new car. My car was now a three door car. The man gets out of his car and just starts yelling like I hit him. "DON'T F'ING CALL THE POLICE" "I DON'T HAVE AN F'ING LICENSE" "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF". My sister and I are just standing there, not sure what to do. Thank goodness our next door neighbor pulls up and saves us from this scary situation. Police come. I just break down into tears. The cops thinks I was in the car. I let him know that my car was stolen the previous week and I had just bought this car today to replace the one that had been stolen. (Sorry I was too depressed to take a picture of this incident)

I get my car fixed. A few months pass with no car problems. And then of course the most RANDOM thing happens. My key gets stuck in the ignition right before I go in for a job interview in St .Louis. No one can get it out. It's stuck like the sword in the stone. I take it back to the dealership. They finally get it out after half a day. They don't really give me a reason what caused this but tell me they "fixed it". Two days later I am in Kansas at work, in the ghetto, and the SAME things happens. I take it to a dealership in Overland Park. They fix it after 3 days of having my car. They try to tell me I "spilled a pop on my gear shifter". WTF. That had not happened. The following week the SAME things happens again. I decide to go to another Chevy dealership in Shawnee. They have my key out of my ignition in record time. 2 hours. They tell me it was a wire shortening. This time I believe that this incident was fixed. I pull up to a gas station right after I left the dealership. And yet again my key is stuck in my ignition. I am fuming. I have to miss work everytime this happens. Can you imagine me having to call my families that I do therapy for and telling them:

1. "Hi I can't come today my car got stolen over the weekend"
2. "Hi I can't come today they found my car in St. Louis"
3. "Hi I can't come today someone hit my brand new car"
4. "Hi I can't come today my key is stuck in my ignition for the 4th time"

I am sure they thought I was lying at times but I had the paper work to prove it. After the fourth time the key was stuck in the ignition FINALLY someone saw I had an exposed wire. My key has not been stuck in my ignition for almost a year (clap clap clap).

10 months pass without anything car problems.

2 weeks ago. I am at work. I walk out to my car at work and notice it looks funny. I see a note on the windshield. Someone had witnessed "Two white guys driving a Lincoln Town Car getting out of my car and steal the covers from my side mirrors". GRRRRRR. I wanted to scream. I wanted to drive this car into the river. I am sick of car problems. I call the police. The area I work in, this is by no means an emergency. An hour passes and officer Russo pulls up. He apologizes for the delay but 25 cars had already been stolen in the area that day (It was 10:45 am). I somewhat had hope this guy would get caught. I had his license plates, and car description but I am sure this was the last thing put on the to do list for the city cops. So now if you see my little Cobalt it looks like this....