Monday, Monday...

So yeah, we've had a nice day today. I mean, appreciate most people think Mondays suck, but this one is kicking it up a notch.

First, let us backtrack to a point late Friday night, early Saturday morning when someone decided to pitch a rock at our living room window. The glass is double paned, but the outside one was cracked quite nicely. The inside pane survived intact. Still, it was going to have to be replaced. And that was dealt with today so hopefully we'll have new glass in the next week.

But that was just the appetizer. When I went to get in the car this morning I discovered that someone thoughtfully let the air out of all four tires on our car. I think I probably stood there just stunned for several minutes. Then I walked to work. I could have got a cab, but really, I needed the walk to calm down. It wasn't until I was half way to work that it dawned on me that the tires were probably slashed. I was still mentally operating on the bizarre notion that someone had taken the time to let the air out of each tire using the nozzle, as opposed to the more simple, direct and efficient method of stabbing it with a knife.

So at anywhere from $150 to $200 a tire, this is a nice chunk of change (although it appears insurance will cover most of it. I say appears because this is, after all, an insurance company). I spent the better part of the morning fuming and trying to get a few things done. That included filing a report with the RCMP. Understand that I viewed that as five minutes of my life that I was never going to get back. Unless you catch them in the act or someone turns them in, vandals are rarely caught.

And really, the RCMP in Iqaluit have enough to do. I don't begrudge them for not throwing tremendous resources at vandalism when they're trying to stop the drug trade, spousal abuse, break and enters and lots of other things. But I was still pissed that this was going to go unpunished.

Then I came back from lunch and found out they apparently caught them. So good on the RCMP. Although, to be fair, if you go and slash the tires of 37 vehicles as these three fine examples of genetic waste did, the odds of you being caught do go up dramatically. No idea of their age, but I will bet good money they're young offenders.

Chatting with one of my lawyer friends pretty much confirmed what I thought...that the odds of anything serious being done to them are slim. It's "just" property damage, never mind that it's probably going to run close to $30,000 to replace all the tires they slashed (a company in town had $50,000 worth of damage done to its bus fleet recently). I know I'll never get the money from them. The idea of taking them to Small Claims Court is a joke. But I would dearly love the idea of them doing community service to each person whose car they vandalized. At a rate of about $25 an hour and at a cost of about $800 to myself and Cathy, one of them (I don't need all four, just one) could work it off to me in about 30 to 35 hours.

And I can assure you, I will find things for them to do. Oh yes...

The next racket I suspect is going to be with the building's owners. Since we moved there three months ago we've had the car broken into twice (including the leaving of a rotting fish on the passenger seat) and there are people regularly (about twice a week) walking on the car. I know this because I can see the muddy foot prints on the roof. This is the same roof, by the way, that I've had to pop back into place several times.

So yeah, I'm done now. I shouldn't have to get rid of a car or move it to someone else's house in the hopes that it will be more secure. At the very least they're going to put a security camera there to monitor the parking area and a warning sign stating the area is under video surveillance. It's a high traffic area. It's the absolute least they can do. So that's the next fight.

So yeah, quite a day.

One final note...this isn't meant, just in case anyone thinks it, as a rant against Iqaluit or the Inuit. For one thing, I don't even know the ethnicity of the people who did the slashing nor do I care. And I've had a car fucked around with when I lived in St. John's. You live Downtown, it's going to happen on occasion.

This is just...infuriating. I just want to throttle people who do petty, stupid things like this. It's the cost, the waste of time and the mood it puts me in. I've been just seething all day. It's like this dark cloud hanging over head. I nearly snapped Cathy's head off over lunch...that's the kind of mood I've been in. I don't care what your ethnicity is or where it happens. It just pisses me off.

Anyway, a nicer post next time.