FLABBERGASTED on a rainy day, but I was cute!

You will not believe the day I’ve had. First of all, I guess I have to begin to admit that it IS fall now. Today’s weather was gloomy and gray. It rained off and on all day today. Well, because I have a meeting to go to later on tonight and just because I wanted to look nice today, I wore a new wrap around dress and shoes with a small heel. Yes, I was cute.
The day started fine until I’m at work and almost 2 hours into the work day when I see a foreign to our company parking lot mini-van pull in. The van was moving suspiciously because it drove to the end of the lot where the last of the employee’s cars were. He moved from 1 to another to a 3rd parking spot. One person got out and went over to an employee’s car and stooped down. I knew something funny was going on, so I grabbed my umbrella (really to use as a weapon if need be) and walked outside. I stood in the visitors’ parking area and was yelling, “HEY!” The guy didn’t move. So I watched a little more. Now, I’m short, mind you, so of course I couldn’t see over many of the cars that were directly at the front of the parking lot. The guy stood up and walked back to the van. Then he goes back to the other car he was I guess “working on” and stoops again. I yelled again, “HEY!” By this time, the guy is stealing the van and pulls out of the parking space with the van following behind it. I take a few steps to get closer toward the exit gate so that I can see the van’s license plate while they were leaving. I couldn’t see the driver. He had on a brown Carhatt coat and a white hoodie, with the hood on his head. Now whenever something suspicious is going on, I make sure that the culprit knows that I am looking at him. If some guy is walking up to my car or walking behind or too close to me, before he can get close enough, I look him directly in his face and say, “Don’t walk up on my car,” or “Hi, how are you?” This way, he knows that I see him well enough where if something were to jump off…I can give his description!
Okay, back to the clowns in the van. They pull off and go up the street. I run back inside and call the coworker who owned the now stolen car. I asked, “Was someone supposed to pick up your car today or something?” Keep in mind, she lives not far from the job and has a brother who also works here. I know her family members when they come to the job. “She says, no…why? Did somebody just take it?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “I’m coming down [stairs].”
I wrote down the make of the van, the color, and the license plate number to give to her. I call 911 and they said, “Oh, you’ll have to call the precinct and make a report with them.” FLABBERGASTED, I say, “Okay, thank you,” and hung up the phone. I called the precinct and do you know what they said? Keep reading, I’ll tell you. I said, “Someone just stole one of my employee’s vehicle out of our parking lot.” The officer said, “Ma’am, they’ll have to come in and fill out a police report here at the station.” FLABBERGASTED AGAIN, I said, “Even though they just stole it, like 8 minutes ago?” I was hoping that it was implied that the thieves are still in the vehicle RIGHT NOW! But, I guess the officer either didn’t care or just wasn’t catching my drift and says, “Yes. We can’t do anything until she comes to fill out a police report.” I’m pretty sure I said thank you and the normal goodbyes while getting off the phone, but my mind was going, “You gotta be freakin’ kidding me!”
By now, the owner has come downstairs and I’m handing her the information I wrote down. I told her about my 2 emergency calls and she gives me the same look that accompanied my previous thought. She goes to tell her brother what happened and grabs her things to head down to the police department. By now, a few other coworkers in the building are aware that we’ve had a theft. They come down to my desk to ask questions. This makes me tell the story every time someone new asks, “What happened? Did you see it?” In my mind, I’m going, “Uh, yeah, I’m the one telling the story here!”
Anyway, at lunchtime, everyone from the 2nd floor goes to lunch together or at the same time. While they’re walking out, a white van pulls into our parking lot. Again, its one I don’t recognize as belonging to one of our employees. My phone rings and its an employee from upstairs looking out the window. She says, “Jenn, did you see that white van pull into the lot.” I said, "Yeah, I saw it." Now, there is a customer in the lobby with me listening to all the commotion. His truck was parked in one of the visitor spaces which blocked my view from the white van. I say into the phone, "It looks like the same white van from earlier. What are they doing, because I can't see? My view is blocked." The customer stood and looks at the direction we're speaking of. The employee says, "He's crouching down." My job has an iron fence that opens and closes with a remote. I hit the button as if life depended on it. I had folks in their cars getting ready to leave the lot for lunch, but I apologized, although they couldn't hear me. "I'm sorry, but you guys are gonna have to wait."

Oh yes! The same van from this morning had returned and was trying to steal another car from our lot again! (You're flabbergasted, aren't you?) The thieves notice that the gate was closing, so they jump back in the van, pull out of the space, and try to beat the gate and get out of the driveway to escape. A group of male employees were already near the gate getting ready to leave. Fortunately, while we were watching the van, another employee from upstairs called one of the guys to tell him that the white van was attempting to steal another car. "Yes, they're right behind you!", she said. Two of the thieves jump out of the van, while its still moving and take off running toward the far end of our parking lot. One of the thieves climbs and jumps over our high iron fence. One male employee stops his truck, grabs, and tackles the other to the ground. While the male employees are going after the first 2 thieves, a third thief or rider comes out of the van and climbs and jumps over the gate right in front of the van which has run into our fence. She, runs to the corner where the first thief escaped. YES, I said SHE! Oh, close your mouth because, HERE is the kicker: Someone pulls up to pick the pair up at the corner, and they're driving the car they stole from our lot earlier that morning!

I'll let you let that marinate for a second. Go ahead. I've got time...

An employee from inside calls the owner who is still at the police station and tells her, "They're here again! No, they came in the same white van. No, they don't have your car here, but they did ride by here again...".

While all of this is going on, I’m on the phone with a 911 dispatcher telling her that the same van that stole from our lot that morning is here again. After I give her the details she FINALLY dispatches a police unit to our address. Within minutes, the police arrive…and pass up our lot. One of our guys goes to the end of the driveway and tries to flag him down. As they’re turning around, another cop car is coming. 3 officers, half a building of employees and one 14 year old criminal are in the parking lot while the police take statements from the victim and the accused. We couldn’t open the gate electronically because the van ran into the electrical box. The maintenance guy opened it manually so that the employees could leave and take their lunch breaks.

It was all very disheartening to see people so young skipping school to steal cars and go joyriding. It was funny after all the male employees were so puffed up and nearly banging their chests, rejoicing in their vigilantism because they caught the boy. It was sad because we still hadn’t stopped the other thieves and retrieved our girl’s car. But after all of those events that occurred in the rain, it is so important to remember that although my feet were killing me in my cute little-heeled shoes, I remained cute!