The Upstate Life

Monday, March 28, 2005

Worst Weekend Ever Edition

The Upstate Life had high hopes for this weekend. Not only was he going to see Interpol for the second time in three months, but was also scheduled to head up to NYC for what was supposed to be a nice getaway from DC/Maryland, at least for a day. Only one of those things came to fruition, and even that didn't prove to be anything spectacular as once hoped.

TUL came home from the gym around 7, and then had to shower, change, and pack before heading over to our friend Kim's place for dinner. After watching Duke lose, which was possibly the only good thing to come out this entire night, we drove over to the 9:30 Club in my car around 11 to catch Interpol perform at their listed time of 11:30. Here's where everything started to go downhill. We parked off the street around 8th and T, just a few blocks from the club. No one ever though twice about parking in the pay lot since the last few shows we've attended we've never had a problem with off-street parking. We left just our coats in the car as we normally did whenever we went to concerts, but R wanted to put her purse in the trunk rather than take it with her into the club. I popped the trunk, threw her purse in there next to my duffel packed for the NY trip, and was on our way. It was probably the dumbest mistake any of us could've made as you'll see in a second.

Interpol opened with "Next Exit", which was the same exact song they started off with the last time I saw them perform at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. I'm not going to go much into details about the show because it was basically a disappointment. Since I thought their NYC performance was decent, I thought this concert would be much better due to the intimacy of the venue. Unfortunately, the band lacked any sort of energy up on stage and drilled through each song with little or no enthusiasm. It was probably one of the first concerts that I left leaving with an empty feeling in my stomach. Interpol is known for its lack of stage presence and Friday night's show was no exception. However, this time, I just wanted to get the show over with since they weren't obviously going to throw any punches. It's a shame because I really enjoy their albums, but this is one band I really could not care about seeing live again.

When we walked back to the car, our friend Alon pointed out that one of the windows on the passenger side of my car was smashed. First thing I realized was, "Oh shit, my iPod was in my jacket." The jacket was gone, along with R's as well. For one reason or another, they didn't decide to take our two other friends' jackets, but instead threw them in the front seat as some sort of weak illusion to make us believe ours were not stolen. R quickly realized her purse was in the trunk and upon opening it, it was of course gone. It didn't even hit me until a few minutes later that my duffel was also packed inside the trunk as well, containing a weekend's worth of shit for the weekend. It too was nowhere in sight. It was the worst feeling to experience. I felt violated, asking myself "How could this happen to me?" I began shouting obscenities in the street and wanting to beat the shit out of the individuals responsible for this vandalism. It completely frustrated me that some worthless asshole could just jack your stuff when you've worked endlessly to pay for the possessions that are now all but gone.

R's purse contained $100 cash, several credit cards, her cell phone, and most importantly (and unfortunately), her iPod. She had just bought it just a short month ago as a present for herself after landing a new job. TUL's duffel contained a few sets of clothes for the weekend, the majority of which was my swank gear since I was going to New York and all. This not only included my coveted Diesel jeans but also my favorite shirt (which I actually bought in 2001 while interning in NYC). My beat-up but still awesome Air Max 95s were in there as well as some new Kenneth Cole shoes I recently purchased at Montgomery Mall just a few fricking months ago (I had to retire my other black shoes since snow got in the holes of them too easily). A few t-shirts, socks, underwear, and my shaving kit with all my toiletries (along with a brand new pack of Mach 3 Turbo razors I just bought that day) were also contained within the Nike gym bag too. Sucked balls wouldn't even begin to describe this scenario. The only comical part about this is that now I've had the same jacket stolen not once, but effing twice.

Our friend called 911, but the operator said we would have to wait at least an hour for a cruiser to stop by and investigate and said we were better off going to the station. As I was too much in a frazzled state to drive, Alon drove the Buick to the police station instead. We took a wrong turn and ended going down the opposite direction of a one way street. Ironically, a cop saw us pull that brilliant maneuver and abruptly pulled us over. We thankfully had the best excuse ever given the busted window, robbery, and all, so he let us go on our heavily depressed way. When we finally got to the station, we filed a report while the officer jotting down the information was shaking her head in disbelief when listing to her how much stuff was stolen. She basically said the purse in the trunk was a dead giveaway to any onlooker and made our vehicle a primary target. I'm sure we were the last priority on their list of crimes to solve given that we were four Jewish kids from NW DC and Maryland going to a rock show while there were kids getting shot in the face on the streets.

Both of us were on my phone with our respective insurance companies until about 4am that evening. All I can say is thank god I purchased renter's insurance. I literally got the policy activated just two weeks ago! Essentially, for a $250 deductible, the possessions that were stolen from my car will hopefully be completely reimbursed by the insurance company up to my specified personal liability limit. Meanwhile, the glass damage fell under my auto insurance and will cost $200 for that specific deductible. $450 total in deductibles, yet the iPod alone was worth $300, so the renter's insurance really comes into play for events like these.

It was obviously a lesson learned but it's always a shame when bad things happen to good people. No one that came with us deserved this, and I sincerely hope they'll catch the criminals who got away with this crime. I entered my iPod serial number into a database that tracks stolen electronics, though I really doubt that will do any good. I bet the dude who jacked it is scrolling through my music and asking himself "Who the hell is Wolf Parade?"

Posted by Brett at 2:37 PM |