Argh!!
Dragonwing
evacuated from their house in Poway, in San Diego county. When we
checked online this morning the fire line was still about half a mile
from their house, which is about where it was last night, so they're
still okay for now.
No, this is about what happened to Ryan's car, which was parked in our
driveway. He last drove it Thursday night, when he came home from his
Scout meeting. He didn't go anywhere on Friday, and Saturday he was at
the UCLA football game pretty much all day and didn't drive anywhere
that night. Sunday he gets ready to go to work. He starts up his car,
and it sounds like Harley, which is strange 'cause this is a 96 4Runner.
He then notices that something is hanging from under his car. He gives
me his car key and takes my car to work. When Mike and Sarah got home
from the Science Center he asked me why my car was gone and Ryan's was
here. I told him what Ryan said so we went to take a look. Sure
enough, there's a bracket hanging loose...and the catalytic converter is
gone. Some loser stole the catalytic converter from the car sometime
between Thursday night and Sunday. I'm guessing that it may have been
done Saturday night 'cause the bracket is real obvious to anyone who
would even glance at the car, and I didn't notice anything unusual
before Sunday.
We then learn online that catalytic converters are being stolen from
SUVs - more ground clearance, easier to remove - for the platinum,
palladium, and most of all rhodium in them. Folks can get between $50
and upwards of $100 each for these metals. Great.
We file a police report online because even though it won't help us it
may help police track down any group that's doing this by giving them
another data point to work with. I filed a claim with our insurance
yesterday. Of course, we can't get it fixed until an adjuster comes out
to check the damage, and that will take a few days, which means we're
down to 2 cars for about a week. Usually this wouldn't be a huge
problem, but we've got all kinds of stuff going on in evenings this
week. We have managed to work this out so far, sharing the pain as it
were. I'm hoping the insurance adjuster will be able to be out tomorrow
so I can have the car towed to my mechanic and get the work done.
Argh!!!
Dragonwing
Liz
say....
What a pain in the neck.
So sorry.
Liz
Dragonwing
> No kidding?? Right in your driveway?? Argh is just a start of what I'd
> say....
> What a pain in the neck.
Yep, right in the driveway. Today we had enough of trying to juggle
everything around - this week has been hectic with appointments,
meetings, and classes - so Mike called our mechanic to ask how much it
would cost to have the work done and when it could be done. When he
called me to say that it would only cost $325 to have them do it, and
the guy who does these things could have it done today, I called the
Auto Club to arrange a tow and get it done today. Then I called the
insurance company to stop the claim I had filed; it wasn't going to save
us much in terms of money, and it had already cost us a few days without
the car The tow truck arrived around 11:40 AM, and I got the call
saying it was done around 1:30 PM.
Now the trick is going to be how to keep this from happening again.
Ryan's car is the oldest of the 3 so it's the logical one to keep in the
driveway instead of in the garage. OTOH, my car is the one with the
least amount of ground clearance, and these guys go after SUVs because
of the easy access. When you're trying to do things quickly you don't
want to waste any more time than you have to, which is why I used The
Club on my Accord; makes it just a bit more difficult for someone to
steal the car. We'll work something out.
Dragonwing
Liz
find it in yours.
You did the right thing by skipping the insurance company on such a low
cost item. Anything under $500 probably will just increase your rates
for little to no benefit. Sounds like a bargain though.
Prevention is the key, I wish you luck with that. LOL, it just occurred
to me that when you bought that house, the thought of a 3rd car must
have seemed soooooo far away! And here you are, almost at time for a 4th
one. Holy smokes, time has flown, eh?
Dragonwing
> I'd expect that sort of thing in my neighborhood, but am surprised to
> find it in yours.
Apparently this is fairly common right now. At least it was a
relatively easy fix with no other damage to the car.
> You did the right thing by skipping the insurance company on such a
> low cost item. Anything under $500 probably will just increase your
> rates for little to no benefit. Sounds like a bargain though.
I heard back from the adjuster today. He said that he spoke with the
gal who does the inspections, and if I can arrange for her to be able to
take a picture of the replacement they will pay the $225 after our
deductible. I'll check with the mechanic to try to arrange something
for tomorrow when the car will be home. Ryan doesn't have classes on
Fridays, and if he goes out at all it won't be until later in the
afternoon.
> Prevention is the key, I wish you luck with that. LOL, it just
> occurred to me that when you bought that house, the thought of a 3rd
> car must have seemed soooooo far away! And here you are, almost at
> time for a 4th one. Holy smokes, time has flown, eh?
No kidding. He wasn't even 2 when we moved in here. Fortunately, we
won't be in any big rush to get Caitlin her own car. She'll have a car
available on weekends, and that's when she's most likely to be going
out. School nights are pretty busy for her, with homework, choir,
religious school, and Scouts. We aren't going to promise her a vehicle,
though, because both of my last ones were totaled after we had committed
to giving them to children <g>
Dragonwing
Liz
So you're committing to driving her back and forth to all those events
on school nights?? That would make me crazy.... Course once she gets her
permit, you can have her do the driving but under your supervision -
give her as much experience as possible while it's still safe.
Speaking of driving, I'm off to work.
Liz
Dragonwing
> Good thinking - karma isn't on your side with cars....
Not for now at least. I still haven't emailed my friend Norm to tell
him about this latest. I've told him I think I'm cursed, and this wil
prove it <g>
> So you're committing to driving her back and forth to all those events
> on school nights?? That would make me crazy.... Course once she gets
> her permit, you can have her do the driving but under your
> supervision - give her as much experience as possible while it's still
> safe.
It's not so bad. Monday nights she has choir, and we're carpooling with
a nice older lady who recently moved a few miles down Ball Road from us.
I don't mind going and listening; it gives me 2 hours of uninterrupted
knitting time <g> Tuesday nights she has religious school, and I'm in
a Torah study class - yes, I'm studying Torah but have no intention of
converting; this is one of those "knowledge is good" things for me - at
the same time, so that's not a problem. She has Scouts at the church
just at the next corner up State College from us, and they only meet
every other Thursday. It really doesn't bother me to do this; I
schlepped Ryan everywhere until he got his license, and that was even
worse 'cause his school was the opposite direction from home than the
girls' school is, so my Tuesday drive to pick up kids and get him to
religious school was really nasty.
Mike apparently is buying a new alarm for Ryan's car since it does stay
parked in the driveway. It had a Viper alarm, but that seems to have
died a few months ago. I just hope that the shock sensor can be set so
the alarm doesn't go off every night during the fireworks.
Dragonwing