Crime rates in rural areas have hardly ever been on high alerts unlike the urban areas. But the story of Anne turns out to be an exception with incidents she had never thought would occur in her life. And to stop the events she was facing, she decided to take the matters into her own hands. Though Anne is an aged woman, she is self-sufficient and has never really needed anyone's support. In order to protect her car from being stolen again, she devices her own plan.
Will she turn out to be successful this time in her endeavors to safe-guard her car by her own means? Or will she fail, ending up with a stolen car yet again?
Anne had decided to reside in Portland, Oregon after her retirement and her husband's death. She had nothing much to herself, just a decent little house that she immensely took care of and kept beautifully. Since retirement, there was hardly anything that would bother Anne until the incident of her car took place.
Portland is a very silent suburban and traditional city where the people support individuality. The comfort level in this city is the main highlight that made Anne determined to stay in the same place.
After her husband's death, Anne has been living alone all by herself. She is a strong woman who has never needed any external support and has a carefree nature of not bothering much about the outside world. She is a content woman. But will she be able to handle the trouble that was to come in her life?
Of all the goods and chattels that Anne possessed, her car was her favorite. She had a 90s Honda Civic model. It was a very old model and therefore stood out in the city because there was hardly anyone in the nearby area who would own a car as old as the model Anne had.
The car was a very old model, but she had taken considerable care of it and that is what made it a prized personal possession for Anne which was more like a classic to her. She hardly ever used it but was happy that she owned it.
Anne had been living in a suburb of Portland since the last so many years of her life and not once had she faced any kind of crime-related problems. Suburbs are usually tranquil and harmonious places for living in, with almost negligible crime due to friendly neighborhoods and that is what pleased Anne.
Anne lived alone, but people in the neighborhood had been very friendly to her. That is the specialty of the suburbs. People are amiable and are there for each other all the time. Anne was completely satisfied with her surroundings and felt comfortable with the people around. But would these people help her at the hour of need?
Since the crime rates were low where Anne had been living, she had never bothered about getting tight and advanced security guards for her house, car or anything else that belonged to her. She had never been a sufferer of any crime and the thought of it never crossed her mind either.
Mischief was knocking at Anne's door but she did not notice it. Her soothing, uninterrupted life was going to face some challenges and disturbance now. Portland will soon turn out to be a not so safe place for her when a group of mischief-makers will invade in her peace.
One morning when Anne woke up thinking it was a beautiful morning, she was in for a blow when she found out that the place where she parks her car was empty. Where could the car be was her first thought. On second thoughts she realized it might have been stolen.
When Anne realized her car was missing, it took her time to analyze what could have gone wrong. There had been no major crimes in the neighborhood since she was living there and she had not thought of any such mishap in the wildest of her dreams because she was never bothered by anything in the little and peaceful suburbs.
As soon as she came to terms with the theft of her car, Anne made a call to the police and filed a complaint. She told about the details of her car and that it was missing since morning when she woke up, so probably it must've been taken away silently by someone in the dark.
As soon as Anne informed the police about her missing car, she called up her close friends and family too. She has a friendly nature and has been cordial to all her relatives and friends who are always there at the hour of need and came to comfort her as soon as they heard the news of the theft.
Although Anne had been living alone since the past many years, she always had someone or the other visiting her. She knew everyone around her house and that comforted her because she did not have to think about locking up stuff or the enforced security of the house if she was not to be around someday.
After a few hours, the local authorities had called back Anne to inform her that her car has been found. She was relieved but also perplexed as to who could've taken away the car only to be found back. The police officials told her that the car had been towed away from a distance..and that was mysterious.
Anne was puzzled when the police told her that her car had been found in Vancouver. The distance between both the places is more than 300 miles and Anne could only wonder why would someone travel so much in a stolen car only to leave it to be towed away later.
It hardly happens that we get anything back after it's lost or stolen. And to find an expensive thing like a car after it has been stolen is pure luck. Anne had been fortunate enough that her car had been towed away and the police had been successful in finding it within hours of it being stolen.
Since the car had been found in Vancouver all the way from Portland, the police officials and Anne had guessed that it must have been stolen by a group of anti-socials who must have taken her car for a joyride and left it somewhere midway that got the car towed away.
Days had passed since the event of stealing had occurred in Anne's life. She was living her routine life now, not thinking of what had happened. It never crossed her mind that anything of the sort could happen again at a place where she had always felt safe and content. Would the first time not be the last time for Anne?
But things were not working in favor of Anne. She had to face more of worried days in her later years of life, which she had never thought of. And clearly, she was not prepared for it at all. The misfortune was to happen again, and she would have to face the consequences all over again.
Another morning came by and Anne was in for another difficult situation. Her car was missing again, and she knew the same people might have taken it. She was hesitant about calling the police as well for the second time because that would question her own security enabling abilities. But she knew she would have to inform anyway.
The thieves already knew where they would find a car if they wanted to steal it ever again, with the exact location of where it would be parked too. That is why they must have decided to take Anne's car for another joyride because it was an easy catch for them.
Maybe the thieves had not just the information of the whereabouts of the car but a lot more than that. They knew for sure that Anne was not the kind of person to put her things under high security so that made things easier for the thieves.
Since Anne's car was a 90s model, it had no hardcore security to protect it from being stolen. The older the model, the easier it is to steal. Anne said, "It is Hondas and Subarus, mid-90s. They're just easy to steal. It's happening in all neighborhoods, good and bad."
The police were successful in finding the stolen car again. Just like last time, it was found in a distant location that troubled Anne even further because it was difficult for her to travel so far a length just to fetch her own car. But this time, the condition of the car was not the same. It had a broken window, smashed badly, and the stereo was stolen.
Anne knew that she would have to find a solution to the problem now and ignoring this would lead to the stealing of the car yet again. She would have to do something for saving her from traveling far off distances to get back her own car which was being used as a joyride vehicle by some mischievous group of people.
Anne was way past the time period where she would think of getting a new car. That would cost her a lot of money and she was not ready to spend so much on a luxurious possession that would be of not much use for her. So, she decided upon repairing her old classic itself.
The retired lady thought of a very unconventional way to get rid of the thieves. She did not take up to things like steering lock, wheel block, gear lock or taking out the battery of the car. She had other plans, which were very different from the general ways that people follow.
Anne had decided to leave something for the thieves in case they would come again, which she was certain about that they would. She wrote one page LETTER to them and decided to leave it on the dashboard of her car, for the thieves to read it when they would try stealing her car again for the third time.
Anne was very much aware of the fact that her act of writing a letter and putting it in her car probably won't stop the thieves from stealing it. But she had other intentions now. Her main motive was not to stop the car from being stolen, although it would have been better if she could do that, her motive was something else, something unique.
The letter that Anne had written for the thieves had the perfect content that was most appropriate for any person who would try to touch her car without her consent. She had written a bold letter, and was confident that would work and end her up in a win-win situation.
In the letter for the thieves, Anne wrote a lot of cuss words for the thieves, and her main aim of writing the letter was that even if the mischievous people take her car again, they should at least have the courtesy to leave the car at some nearby place and not some far off city.
Anne had to travel twice to distant places to get her car back after it had been stolen and towed away by the police. She did not want to bear the extra cost of travelling to these places and making so many extra efforts for something that she had not even invited in her life.
With the letter put on the dashboard of the car, Anne was fully prepared for any future incident which could occur, and she was sure that it would happen for the third time. When the thieves did not spare the car for the second time, they would not spare it for the third time as well. But she had her hopes high with her plans.
Anne knew that she could not stop the thieves from stealing the car again since they had so much information about its whereabouts and it was such an old model so she could not alter much in it for security purposes. So she instead asked the thieves in the letter to follow certain instructions which would be convenient for her.
When her car was stolen for the first time, Anne was worried because she had not expected any such thing to happen and she was worried if she would be able to even find it or not. But when it happened for the second time, she had gotten almost used to it and somewhere in her subconscious knew that she would get it back. After the second time, she has become stress-free about her car and has stopped worrying for it.
It did happen again. Another morning came in, and the car was gone again. This time Anne was hardly worried. It was as if she was prepared for it and knew that it would certainly happen again. When she called the police to inform them once more about the theft, they had already recognized her by her voice, like they were used to it now.
Instead of being stressed or worried about her car, Anne was feeling more of eagerness. She wanted to see what would be the consequences of the letter that she had put in the car. She knew that it would get stolen again, now she just wanted to see how would the thieves react to the action that she had taken or would they just ignore it.
Anne was restless after the car was lost for the third time. Not because of the fear of it not returning to her, but because she wanted to see if the instructions on her letter would be followed by the thieves or would it all be in vain and she would have to bear the hardships of getting her car back again.
Anne just wanted no mischief in her simple life that she had always lead. She had been living in the suburbs of Portland because she never wanted any kind of mischief or worries in her life. She liked leading an uncomplicated life, therefore, was fed up of the incidents regarding her car.
Anne's car was so old that she did not really bother about it being stolen. After it went missing for the first time, she realized that the commodity was not worth worrying for because it was of hardly any use to her. She only wanted it to be taken away in the right way if it was meant to be taken.
The only right way that Anne wanted the thieves to follow was to either take the car away forever or leave it somewhere near so that she could easily get it back and not be a part of any long journeys to get it back. It was hard for her to travel as well as to bear the cost of it.
The surprise came in when the thieves turned out to have read the letter that Anne had kept. "I left a snarky note in the glovebox of my Honda the last time it was stolen. Just recovered the car from the most recent theft. They read my letter and I think it worked; they ditched it in front of a house this time (YAY)," the woman wrote.
Anne did not want to take any stress for the car. She was done worrying about the same reason two times, so after that, she took to humor instead. She decided on not living in fear or anxiety of when it might happen again, instead decided to let it all go and take everything lightly.
Not thinking about what would happen in the future, Anne lead a carefree life and did not let anything alter her spirits or bring her down. She did not bother about the car being stolen and took it lightly and humorously instead.
Though the thieves had been bothering Anne again and again by taking away her car more than once, they were at least cordial enough to have followed the instructions that she had requested for in her letter. It would hardly be expected of any thief to do such a thing, but it turned out to be a pretty unusual case for Anne.
The crime rate has been on an increase since the last few years, and especially for the senior citizens of every city. The criminals think that it would be easy to deceive the elderly and they could have an easy way out. This needs to be taken care of and more security should be alerted.
Anne had always lived a life of contentment and nothing disturbed her in the matter. When she realized that she was letting the stealing of car and the thieves take over her, she took the path of sarcasm and humor and that really seems to be commendable for a person her age.
We should be a helping hand for the elders and make them aware of the latest technologies that have come up in the field of personal securities so that they can cope up with the recent facilities and protect themselves and their belongings from any kind of an accident that anyone can be prone to.
The way Anne handled the situation of the recurrence of her car being stolen is a way that we should all look forward to. It is true that writing a letter would probably not stop the thieves from committing the crime but at least we can learn not to worry or stress ourselves about the things which are not in our hands.