An Unexpected Eventful Evening

Okay, so I haven't quite squared away my DMV vehicle registration even though I've been a DC resident for over a year now. I still have Maryland plates, which means I have to leave my car on Adams Mill Road - quite possibly the last unzoned street in the District. I hardly ever drive my car, so it doesn't really bother or inconvenience me.

Last night at around 8:30pm I walked down to my car and noticed something strange on the roof. Upon closer observation, I could clearly make out that somebody had left an in-dash Sony CD car stereo there. On the roof of my car. I also noticed that it was missing the faceplate, thus rendering the car stereo completely useless. So the situation is quite clear - despite the fact that the owner had removed the faceplate for security reasons, somebody still had the audacity to break into that person's car and steal the core stereo, just because they could. Somewhere along the way, the shithead-at-large decides to place the stolen stereo on top of my car. I was extra agitated because the same exact thing happened to me a number of months ago and I have yet to replace my own stereo. So it was as if the thief were taunting me in some sick way.

At that moment Luc calls me. I tell him everything and he advises me to call the police immediately. So I called DC's non-emergency 311 line and they dispatched a squad car to the scene. Minutes later, a cop car shows up and two officers get out and I fill them in on what's going on. One officer stayed by me and called the dispatcher to see if anyone had reported a stolen car stereo while the other officer walked around the block looking for a car that had been broken into. No dice on both ends, so the cops took the Sony stereo off my roof and were on their way.

Pulling out of the parking spot was hell considering my car was plowed-in with snow. After several minutes I somehow managed to get out of there. I was on my way to Kyra's house, as she was throwing a Wii party. I was headed south on 16th street and slammed just a little too hard on my brakes at one point - that sent the sheet of ice on my roof sliding down to my windshield. Between a small crack in the ice, I was able to tell that there was no oncoming traffic, so I quickly busted a left on U Street and was able to gather enough momentum to send the ice flying off. Bad news? The extremely sharp front-end of the sheet of ice destroyed my wipers as it came crashing down the windshield.

Oh, but the night gets even more interesting. A few hours later, as I was leaving Kyra's house, I was driving towards Florida Avenue and right in the middle of the street was what appeared to be a four-on-four brawl. Great. Just great. As soon as the streetfighters cleared to the sidewalk, I called ol' trusty 311 again (twice in one evening - that's crazy rare) and reported the mini riot. "Did you see any weapons?" asked the dispatcher. "No," I replied, "I just wanted to get the hell outta there." The dispatcher chuckled and said, "I don't blame you....I'll send a squad car right away."

On my way home I was halfway expecting something extraordinarily silly to happen, just to top the night off. But nothing doing. So I just got home, went to bed, and dreamt weird dreams.