Life in Portland, 2008

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On April 7, 2008 I was headed to a MeetInPortland.org book discussion group and took my car in to work. When I came to head to the discussion group it wasn't there. Doh! It had been right where the little red Nissan was. I had never had my car stolen over 30 years of ownership and now it was stolen twice in two months. The last time it was from my apartment complex, but was recovered very quickly, just a day or so. I also wasn't organized enough to take pictures, so just wrote it up as a rambling tale. This time I took pictures. I called in the theft and waited about half an hour for the police and filled out the report. As Officer Blazer was taking the report, mall security also came by (above) and took their briefer report.	=0=
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Before I filled out the reports, I had spoken with Eric and he was going to the discussion group as well and could give me a ride home, so after I filled out the reports I walked almost three miles to the Cafe Palino (above) where the discussion was. It was a fine discussion and Eric took me home. However, it was over two weeks (April 24) before I got my car back, so I had lots of chances to learn how to get around without a car. I walked just over a mile to the Wal-Mart (easy walk there, but things like flour and milk get heavy on the return) and biked to Winco (1.3 miles). When they found my car, I took the two buses to the Delta Park Transit station and then biked a couple of miles to the tow lot. There was a pretty stretch along a bank of the Columbia river (Oregon side of Jantzen Beach) with house boats and a nice view (above and here).	=0=
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I picked my car up at Sergeant's Towing shown above and here. I had forgotten to bring my registration, but fortunately they would relase my car if I had my insurance company send them via fax proof of insurance, which turned out to be real easy. Whew! When I got my car back, I was surprised that there was an empty cash register drawer on the passenger's floor board. That made me a little sad as indicates that my car was probably used in a robbery. I called the police and they picked up the drawer while I was at work. After my car was stolen the first time, I started bringing my steering wheel in with me when I got home, but to take my steering wheel with to work on the bus was even more annoying. So, for now, I am using a 'club' clone attached to the steering wheel to encourage thieves to move on to another car.	=0=
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