Common sense is not something that everyone has and the realization that it is more scarce than I would hope has hit me smack in the face like a shaving cream pie. When an annoyed Judge extends a scheduling date so that the parties can settle a civil matter he sends a clear message when he says on record, "This is not something you want the court to decide. You need to settle and resolve this." The message is loud and clear. The attorneys' for the defendants agree that the Judge's message was loud and clear. Nearing the next return for the court date and deadline for settlement, the clients decide to ignore the message from their attorneys and humor everyone by now claiming, "We were not there."
Hearing the "we weren't there" is common in the bluff of a criminal trial, but in a civil matter this is a whole new variety of bologna sandwich. I would take you to the drive through for this bologna sandwich, but since I had my car stolen that will not be possible unless of course you are driving.
I wasn't car jacked, my car wasn't even broken into and stolen. There was no glass, it was not parked in the wrong place, it was parked in my assigned and secure underground parking spot that I pay $200 per month for. The same spot that I have had to pay for, as per my contract, even though I do not have a car presently parked in it. My car was towed. Towed and stolen. Stolen from my residential building where eight congressmen and six senators live; most currently newsworthy, Gabrielle Giffords.
City people do not always drive every day. We are not car dependent. Sometimes we go weeks without even needing to get in our cars. We pay to make sure that our cars are safe and available when we need them. We pay premium rents to for security and piece of mind; knowing that our belongings are safe and secure. Today I feel like my car would have been safer anywhere but where it was.
Today the defense attorneys' client wants to go with "we did not have anyone working that day so we were not there." My stomach churns with bile just listening to the lie. Now they want to attempt to bluff and make a claim that opens them up to more liability. Their contract requires them to have someone manning the front door 27/7. Simple Midwestern logic questions why they don't just cut their losses and replace the vehicle. A standard replacement vehicle and rental car fees are much less expensive than paying your overpriced lawyer $400 per hour to let us prove you are a lying deceptive idiot. The log books and surveillance cameras show that you had an employee working. Your payroll records show it, the log record from the front desk and phone records show it. It has been proven that your employee was the one that participated in the wrongful tow-stealing of my car. But ok, lets just let you go with your lie and see where that gets you. Simple. It gets you to the place where your damages are far greater and more detrimental than your lack of common sense.
Asking, "Why me?" is simply answered. It wasn't just me. It was various other people that were targeted. Nice vehicles that seemed to be paid for that were not driven often by the owners. I was a target without even knowing it. My space consisted of a parking garage shopping showcase area for orchestrated thieves with a license to tow.
I don't want a new car. I never did. If I had wanted a new car I would have bought one. I wanted my car. I liked my car and had no intentions of replacing it any time soon. Now I am forced to replace my vehicle with a vehicle that I really do not covet. I now get to pay increased insurance rates for a car that I really didn't want in the first place. There is the anxiety and fear every time I go to get in my parked car that it will not be there. And there is that pain in my gut every time I will get in the new car that will be a constant reminder of the replacement loss of the car that I loved, only to be increased when I am driving in traffic past a car that might have been mine.
