"Thou shalt not steal..."

This morning as I left for work about 5:40am I was shocked and surprised to discover that someone had taken one of the tires of my car off and had set my car on it. I couldn't see much as it was dark out so I waited until my brother and sister-in-law got back from running to consult them. They said I should call the police and so I did. Pretty soon a patrol car pulled up and he started asking questions to write up his report. Then he said he could help us get the tire back on. So we jacked up my car and as we're trying to put the tire back we realize it's too small and then it hits. This is not even my tire. I had just bought new tires back in January and this was not one of them. So now the police report turns into a stolen property report. We get my spare tire back on and the officer says he needs to take the tire they left for evidence. Then he has me sign a piece of paper stating he took the tire. As he hands me my copy he says that I can have that tire back after 31 days. As politely as I can I say, "No thanks." And off he goes.

My next trip was to Tires Plus to get a new tire. I walk in and tell the guy my saga and he says, as politely as he can, "Do you have the rim?" Another realization for me. No tire...no rim. I just sigh and ask him how much that will cost. He says a new one from Toyota is over $100 but he will call around to some junk yards to see if he can find one for me. And he'll call me. So I leave Tires Plus with no tire but the time and money to deal with this scenario is mounting! And I go to work. I didn't really want to but I need a distraction and work was it.

On the way to work I call my mom...who use to work at an insurance company and she encourages me to call my insurance to see if, by chance, this kind of thing is covered. So when I get to work I sit in the parking lot and make that call. Turns out it is covered! And all I have to pay is my deductible. I give the agent my info and the police report info and he says an adjuster will be in touch.

To sum it all up...by the time I got home from work at 3pm today I had a check in my hand from the insurance company and the guy at Tires Plus had already ordered the rim from the Toyota dealer. And he called back about 15 minutes ago and said they just brought the rim and if I come in before they close at 8pm they can get this all taken care of for me.

I'm thankful that it was only a tire and not my car. And that everything worked out how it did today. One thing that made me chuckle through this situation today was that someone actually asked me it was stolen right off my car. I guess that would be opposed to them stealing one of the extra car tires I keep laying around.) :-

So, if you're reading this and you took my tire, BRING IT BACK! I need to add it to my extra car tire pile...