Several of our neighbors had heard some guys talking/shouting outside, but didn't look out to see what was going on. But then, after the sounds of glass breaking and cars revving and tearing away, a few of them went out to see what was happening. Amazingly, we didn't really hear any of it - we'd both taken NyQuil and were zonked out, and I'm a really sound sleeper anyway.
When our neighbor first woke us up, she was shouting something about a "blue Honda Civic", and we first thought she meant that was the car that had got hit, and Jenny was trying to tell her that "no, I've got a Toyota pickup". But what she meant was that a few of the neighbors had seen two cars taking off after the attack, and one of them was a blue Honda Civic. Unfortunately, no one actually saw the person or persons who did the smashing.
While we don't know for sure who did this, we have a theory: back in April, our nextdoor neighbor's car got stolen right out of it's parking space out front, and Jenny witnessed them doing it. She went with the neighbor and his roommate to help identify the thieves, and even spoke to a reporter on TV for a few seconds about the event.
She wrote about these happenings at the time of their occurence:
Eye Witness To Crime
More Eye Witness
We have no enemies that we know of (we barely know anyone here in Spokane as it is), so our theory is that this is a retaliation against Jenny helping this guy get arrested (not that he really need any...). We spoke to our neighbor (the one who's car was stolen) about it, and it turns out the guy only spent about a month in jail for his efforts, plus we're sure he's got other buddies who might have perpetrated this as well. We just don't know....
Two police officers came last night after we called 911 and took pictures of the scene and took statements from everyone, but there really wasn't much they could do. Since no one saw the person/people who did the smashing, and no one got a license number of the cars, they don't have anyone to look for. We explained the whole car theft/retaliation idea, but they seemed convinced that this was a "random act of violence" and that there was no connection between the two incidents.
So now we're trying to figure out what we want to do next. We don't want to have to move, but there's nothing stopping someone from coming back and doing this again, after we've replaced all the windows or got a new vehicle. The apartment complex has garages that we can theoretically rent for $40 a month, but the office doesn't know which garage belongs to which tenants. So, until they take a census of the whole complex, they can't rent out any more garages. Although one of the neighbors we talked to today said her car's windows were smashed out a while back, and it was inside her garage....
For now, we've got to first replace the windshield, and then eventually the side windows (when it gets a little colder), so we've got to come up with the money for that. In addition, I'm in the process of trying to pay off the remaining money that Chris and I owe to the IRS for the business, which is going to cost me about $2800 that I don't have. I've got $1400 set aside at the moment, to put a dent in the total, but will have to pay the rest of it in installments over the next couple of years. I would have paid this amount already, but we're waiting for Jenny's bank to send her new check card, so that she can access her money again (so we can buy little things like food and gas). Her old card expired at the end of last month, but they didn't mail out the new one until the first of this month. Really smart. Nr.
If you'd like to learn more about the car theft incident, you can read the police report online here:
Stolen Vehicle Incident Ends in Arrest
This report includes such fun facts as the names of the two principle people responsible, and their home address. How I love the Internet and the power of Google!
And now, marvel at the carnage:
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