Gift of Fear

Last night I was sitting in my apartment at 10:12pm, living room light on, just finished watching a movie and thankfully the door was locked. Someone tried to open my door 2 times, then I heard a car door close and a car drive away. Of course it freaked me out, but I chalked it up to some drunk person trying to open the wrong door or someone trying to go into the wrong apartment.

Today at noon, I went out to make my usual Starbucks and Target run, only to find my driver's side mirror smashed. At first I thought what most would naturally think, someone drove by and hit it. But there wasn't a mark on the side of my very dirty car, no scratch on the side, no scuff on my tire which was turned out since I was parking uphill. Plus, there were parts of the mirror way in front and way in back of my car. It really looked like someone smashed it with a baseball bat or something like that.

I called the cops and my insurance company. The cop filed it as "criminal mischief" because even to him, it just didn't seem like a car hit it. He took my info, lectured me a bit for not calling the cops the night before and left. What else could be done?

Were the two incidents related? Who really knows. We can't prove when my mirror was smashed, although the fact that pieces were frozen in the ice indicate that it was hit before things froze over again last night, so say before 11pm, or as the cop said, sometime in the night.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I do have a couple suspects in mind and both incidents could be them, they know my car and where I live. My old roommate used to hang with some very questionable people. She hasn't talked to them or seen them in almost 2 years, she really got her life in order, but it is weird that the week it is made publicly known that she is back in town for good, stuff happens to my car. Why would they take it out on me? Well, one had quite the crush on me and I rejected him. And they are just psychotic enough to seek revenge.

But truthfully, as I said, I'm probably just being paranoid. Maybe it is all coincidence. Maybe it was some drunken idiot that tried to go into the wrong apartment and some dumbass that decided to smash a random persons mirror. Either way, it freaked me out significantly. I am sitting at Starbucks typing this. And I will probably spend the night at my parent's house. But if it was someone intending to scare the shit out of me, not staying in my own apartment would prove that they succeeded. I don't want to be stupid, but I also don't to always be scared of being at home at night.

One things for sure, I will always be a bit more cautious and my apartment will always be locked, night or day, even when I am home with the kiddos. Better to always be safe than sorry. And as my self defense class in college taught me, there is a Gift of Fear.