Since the article was posted for the Sunday paper, I decided that we ought to get an actual paper copy. I know my mom prefers to have the hard copy, and I'll admit I was curious to see where they'd put me. So this morning we headed for one of the local coffee shops, and as I was rummaging in my purse for quarters, Richard got out of the car and started heading toward the paper dispenser. Then he stopped. "Well, there you are," he said. And he was right. There I was, my picture plastered all over the front page of the paper, staring out of the paper dispenser. Wow.

We got our coffee and our chocolate croissants and asked for change so we could get a paper (the curse of the ATM generation – never having cash or change anymore) and then we got a copy of the paper, and I kind of stared at it in a little bit of shock for a bit because I wasn't exactly expecting this to be a front page sort of article. I can only figure this must have been a really slow news day. Heh.

So much for the good part of the day. Today was the last day of the Lord of the Rings class Richard and I have been joint teaching for adult Sunday school at church. We'd been bringing my laptop to church to show clips from the DVD's during discussion, but Richard's laptop was finally back from Sony after being serviced, so today we brought his instead. We did the class, Richard gathered up all the materials, and then he put them all into the car, which was parked right outside the door of the church, and we headed off to the service. It wasn't until an hour and a half later that we emerged again, only to discover that someone had broken into the car and the laptop was gone.

I am counting us lucky, in a way. All they took was the laptop. When the police came he noted that they likely used a spark plug, held in their hand, to smash in the back passenger window. The glass wouldn't shatter and make noise, since it's meant to not shatter in an accident, so all they had to do was then pull the pieces out carefully and quietly, reach in, grab the bag, and run. So the only damage to the car was the broken window. The policeman dusted for fingerprints but none of us were surprised when nothing showed up. It was obvious they didn't try to take anything else.

Sigh. Once the policeman had left, Richard and I swept up the glass all over the sidewalk and street as best we could, figuring we didn't want to leave the mess to hurt someone else, and then went home to rummage around and try to find the serial number for the laptop. The police will keep it on file, just in case they run into someone with stolen property, and luckily we'd been smart enough to hang onto the receipt (mainly for warranty issues more than anything else). We dutifully called in the information, but I think the general consensus is that the chances of the culprit being caught are pretty much zip, and I think it's safe to say that we can pretty much kiss that laptop goodbye.

I will admit to being grateful that at least it was his and not mine. Since he'd just had his in for service he'd just backed up all his data, so he didn't lose any data. Mine hasn't been backed up in ages and if mine had been the one lost I am not entirely sure what I would do to try to replace some of that information.

We called and made an insurance report. They'll send someone out to replace the window early this week. I suppose I should be angry, yelling and cursing, but really, I'm just resigned. Even if the car had an alarm they would have been able to steal the laptop and run before anyone would have made it outside to see what was causing all the noise. No one was hurt. All that was broken was the window, and that's what we have insurance for.