Since I was hired to teach at Herron, I've been hauling not one, not two, but three bags around all the time. There's my book bag which contains unit binders as well as my lunch box, thermos and other loose items. A gym bag full of clothes, and lastly a messenger style bag that holds my journal, day planner, library book and the laptop I was issued by the school.
Every day has been a long one. I've been going in to school early for office hours and meetings, whether I am required to be there or not. I've been hitting the gym either before I go in or in the morning before I teach. Once school let's out I go straight to one of my three part time jobs. Somehow in the midst of all this I have also managed to find a way to take care of my poor dog.
With all of that being said, I hope you can understand that when I arrived to my mother's house on Wednesday night at around ten, weighted with all of these belongings and a hamper full of laundry, I just could not seem to muster the strength to extend one finger to lock my Jeep. I almost never leave my car unlocked. I spent the night there and when I tried to leave the next morning I noticed that all of the contents of my gym bag had been dumped out and someone had rifled through the glove box. The theif made off with the laptop, but nothing else. Don't ask me why it was in my gym bag instead of the messenger bag and don't ask me why I left it in there. My sister also lost a circular saw from her car.
The crook could have gotten several other things that would have been much harder to replace: my checkbook, baseball glove, and an external hard drive that only contains every document and powerpoint presentation that I've ever created during my teaching career, but all of that has no street value and so he left it. It was more inconvenient than anything that I had to go back into the technology office, explain what happened, and then wait to be reissued a new one after only one week with the last one. Plus I was late to school because I had to pack all of my stuff back into my bag.
Southport is where my mom and sister and family live. It is considered to be a decent community, however I was not surprised that I got hit. There have been similar incidents in the past, and it's still Indianapolis. Luckily Mrs. Browning had another laptop to give me, and she said that it would just be written off, because there's nothing we can do about it. We're not talking about a Macbook. These are outdated machines, but they get the job done. I was still concerned however that I would be charged for my negligience, but I was relieved when I found out that I would not be. At any rate, I was planning to file a report once I got the serial number from Mrs. Browning, but I didn't get the chance to do that.
As I was leaving practice I noticed that I had received a Facebook message from a lady I did not recognize. The message said, "Did you lose a laptop?" I replied, "Yes . . did you find it?" It turns out that she lives directly behind my family in a different sub division and she was also robbed. Apparently the thief had my laptop with him when he broke in to her car and forgot it! He got about $25 from her. She got my name from the login screen and said in thirty years of living in that neighborhood, she had never had a problem with crime. I went down to the police station to claim the laptop later that night!
I shared this story with the entire staff at our Friday professional development meeting and they were amused. I returned the second laptop to Mrs. Browning and told her it wouldn't happen again. I say that in the future I will not forget to take valuables out of my car, but I probably will. Over the years I've had my car broke in to numerous times. I am thankful that this time, thanks to dumb luck, everything worked out okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment