My neighbor called me to say the cops were looking for me…something about my car. Turns out someone smashed in my driver side window with a HUGE A** ROCK.

So there I was, watching Torchwood, Season 1, Episode 2. Comfortably in my bed, Macbook humming away when I get a call. It’s my neighbor Tony.

“Adria, the cops were just at my door looking for you. I sent them upstairs. Are you all right?”, he says.

Me: Yeah Tony I’m fine. What’s up?

Tony: Well they came here knocking on doors looking for you. I told them you were upstairs.

Me: (Wondering why the cops can’t find me as I know my address is current on my driver’s license) I’m fine Tony. Just watching a show.

Tony: They were saying something about your car

Me: (Curse words swirling inside my mind) Ok, I’m going to go and see if I can find out what’s going on. (I dress hurridly and head down the front stairs, sorta dreading what I expect to see)

I go out and there is the cop car near my car Toby. I greet the officers who are in the squad car with the windows rolled up. They step out. I identify myself as Adria Richards. I ask them what’s going on. I can see by now my car has a broken window. “Did you check it out?” I ask. “For what?” says the cop who stepped out of the driver’s side. “To see if anyone is in it. Can you walk over to the car with me?” I say. He does and tells me I should check to see if anything is missing. I can’t believe this cop. I tell him the car is 20 years old and there’s nothing to take from the car. This is a revenge thing.

NOTE: Do not try to have conversations with White male cops about domestic abuse, stalking, revenge or anything that resembles a logical thought process OR deductive reasoning as you will lose them and frustrate yourself.

Fast forward that I give up talking to both cops about my suspicions but I do get the following after interviewing them both:

• Someone observed the act occurring
• A witness called the police but declined to identify theirself
• Someone physically interrupted the person committing the act
• The person reported as committing the act was White, mid 20’s male, dark hair

Moving on to happier thoughts, first one then another neighbor came out. I told the cops I was going to blog/tweet this and they were fine with me posting their photo. My neighbors were super awesome and consoled me, shared what they had heard, what others had said and what they’d done to alert me. We talked, joked, I took photos and we discussed strategies for repair (report it on my car insurance/don’t report it). I felt truly grateful and happy that I’d made authentic connections with the folks in my building and people in the neighborhood. I’ve been here for almost 3 years.

Looking back, I’ve come a long way from the old days when I couldn’t even speak up to ask for help at my job when my car battery had died (2000). I felt so uncomfortable asking my co-workers (aka bothering them) that I sat at my desk for more than 2 hours while my boyfriend at the time drove across town to help me jump my car. Ack! I realize now that I don’t have to bear the emotional baggage of each stressful situation I’m involved in. I can instead ask for help, delegate and call in favors. I understand how I like helping people, I need to let people help me.

So, we patched up the window with some kitchen garbage bags until morning. I’ll go out and take some more photos. It’s not such a big deal…now. Last year, this would have been emotionally crushing to me. I can’t “prove” who did this or why but when you see the size of the rock tomorrow, you’ll think twice if someone would use it to “rob” a car when there are more effective ways to unlock a vehicle.

This is definitely going under the category, Dramatical