A rotten car thief

So after work last night we met Katie at her ex-boyfriend’s dad’s house to do a final sweep to clean out her stuff.  I was under the impression there wasn’t much left but somehow we wound up filling up both Katie’s truck and mine substantially.  It was sad for Katie since she likes Daniel’s family and they feel the same about her.  Extended families are usually an unfortunate casualty when relationships end.

So as we were getting towards the end of the loading process I noticed the door on Katie’s Dodge was wide open.  Not wanting mosquitoes or other undesirables to get into the cab, I closed the door for her.  As we were ready to leave I heard Katie say her keys were locked in the truck.  WTF?  So she asked who closed the door, I told her I did.  Well evidently Katie left her keys in the truck which would be fine except evidently Daniel’s step mom for some odd reason had hit the door lock button while the door was left open.  Of course I didn’t check the lock status before I pushed the door closed.

I was frustrated at the situation.  Daniel had another set of keys but was not home.  Cindy got on the phone with USAA to get someone out to unlock the car.  My frustration demanded I do something to try to rectify the problem.  I did a quick internet search on technique to pop the lock.  After finding a wire hangar I bent a crude hook into one end and made my first attempt at being a car thief.

I spent a good 20 minutes futzing around, trying to blindly snag the door lock mechanism between the window and weatherstripping.  By the time the lock guy showed up I was still in there digging around.  I don’t give up easily.  The professional used a technique I saw before online.  He used a plastic wedge to make a little space on the top of the door, enough to squeeze a thin rubber bladder in between the door and the frame.  He then pumped the bladder with a handheld inflator, similar to a blood pressure cuff rig.  This created just enough of a gap that he could insert a long fiberglass pole inside that he used to activate the door lock button. I told him I wanted to get a set of those tools for an emergency.  He said they restrict who they will sell them to for obvious reasons.

So finally we were on the road headed home.  When we got there I lugged the large items to the small shed while the boxes and smaller items got piled in the garage to be sorted and put away.  Katie is hoping to have a garage sale soon to get rid of the stuff that was hers but she no longer really needs.  I was happy to have her stuff totally under one roof so Katie can now work on getting some stability to plan whatever her next step will be.

I don’t harbor any ill will towards Daniel either.  He is a young kid just trying to find his way.  When I was 20 I had no idea what the hell I really wanted and had even less idea about how to be successful in relationships.  I am hoping having Katie in our household will allow some of the stability and calm to help her refocus and move forward.

Last night Elsa had an unexpected bathroom incident where she squatted right in front of the couch where Cindy and Katie were sitting and peed.  Cindy instantly yelled at her and Elsa reacted by jumping on top of me as I was laying on the other sofa.  I am not sure if this was her reaction to having two other dogs thrust into her living space but it is a behavior we need to correct immediately.  Elsa is a very sweet, cute, and loving dog.  Unfortunately she is also very neurotic at times which is going to require a lot of long term patience.