Amanda Hoffer | Staff Writer

3/8/02

Have you ever had a day where everything was going smoothly? Everything was normal and right with the world. Your day is planned and nothing could go wrong, and then it does. Yeah, that happened to me today. My car was stolen.

I was having one of those normal days today. I woke up, went to work, came back to the room to put my stuff away, went to the lot to get my car, and it wasn't there. At first I thought maybe that wasn't where I parked, and searched the lot, but then I remembered the car I parked next to and it was still there. I then went into a state of shock. I didn't know what to do. Where was it? Did I give my sister the keys yesterday? No. What the hell do I do now? What am I going to tell my parents? I was a wreck. I went back to my dorm and continued to freak. As the shock began to wear off I realized I had to go to the police about this.

As I walked over there, and this is hard for me to admit, I started to cry. I just did my best to keep my composure. I didn't want to seem like a hysterical freak. I walked into the RU police station and when the man behind the counter asked how could he help me all I could say was, "I think my car has been stolen." Pretty weak, but mentally so was I at the time. Shortly after that one of the sergeants and an officer stepped out and asked me if I was sure of where I had parked. I felt a little insulted, but then again the majority of their cases are students parking somewhere other than usual and forgetting, so I guess I can forgive them. Of course then they spent fifteen minutes making sure I wasn't one of those other students. After doing that and checking to make sure the towing companies hadn't flubbed, I begin filling out my police report, did the interview, etc. Now it's in the hands of the police.

I used to think that whole victim feeling violated was a bit of an exaggeration. Now I know better. I mean they haven't just taken my car. They have taken so much more. They've taken away my trust. They've taken away my independence. And they've taken away my long standing sense of security on this campus. These are things I'll never get back, whether they recover my car or not. My dad said to me on the phone when I called him, "Welcome to the adult world." I don't really like my welcome all that much.