That's exactly what happened to me this past weekend in Montana.
After the show, while my buddy and headliner, Steve Sabo, was still on stage, I went to set up Steve's CDs and t-shirts on the merch table. Seeing as I was selling my ever-so-classy bumper stickers, I also put those on the table and set my purse right next to them.
I turned my head for what was probably ten seconds while Steve was finishing up his closing bit. In that time, a guy swooped in, pretended to look at the t-shirts, grabbed my purse and walked away with it.
He not only got the purse, but he also got my car keys and used them to steal a ton of things from my car. But, he didn't steal everything from my car. Nope, just random crap like a cooler full of Red Bull, a snuggie, and my car owner's manual. Apparently, he was really thirsty, likes robes with sleeves, and had a burning desire to know how many miles a Honda Civic can go before needing its oil changed.
The other issue was, after he got through taking all of my credit cards, IDs, money, and other useful things, he kept my keys. So, I couldn't even get into my car. And I was scared he was going to come back and steal it.
So, after filing the police report, I had to have my car towed across town to essentially hide it from this guy. And Steve and I had to think how the heck we were going to get to Idaho the next day in a car we couldn't get into.
While we were figuring this out, we got a call from the police saying they actually caught the guy. Apparently, he hit four other cars in the parking lot (he used a rock to break their windows), stole a cell phone from one of the vehicles, which was then tracked to his residence. Doh!
Up until this point, I thought he was a pretty savvy criminal (and gutsy, too, given that he actually had the audacity to buy a drink from the bar where he just stole a ton of stuff...on a stolen credit card, of course) seeing as he stole my purse when it was within feet of me. But, I'm pretty sure theft 101 dictates you're not supposed to take anything that's traceable. Apparently, dude doesn't watch enough Dateline.
This is where I feel like my law degree came in handy: after the police caught him, he refused to consent to a search, so I knew that even though he had our stuff, we wouldn't be getting it back any time soon because the police hadn't yet secured a warrant. Even if I can't get a job, at least my education helped prepare me for disappointment. Who knows if we'll ever get it back as it's now currently being used as evidence.
The next morning, I called a locksmith and begged him to rekey my car (and even talked him into picking us up from our hotel -- you haven't lived until you've sat in the back of a van, on a stool that probably isn't even street legal) in time for us to make it to our gig in Idaho. Luckily, he obliged. And thank goodness for the generosity of Steve Sabo, who not only lent me money for the rekeying, but helped me prove my identity when I tried to check into hotels with no identification nor credit cards.
The rest of the trip was a blur of dealing with insurance companies and police.
But, we did have a lot of fun in Billings, where we literally got to hang with Mr. Cooper at the St. Patrick's Day parade.
The parade was small, but cute, and after searching for two hours, we finally located green beer. Us with the good stuff:
And, we met this guy whose hat game was seriously on point.
We even got to celebrate St. Patrick's Day again that night (this time with mustaches) in Miles City.
After playing a matinee show in a wedding hall on Sunday (which was surprisingly fun, despite afternoon shows having a tendency to not be so great), we headed home. Again, thanks to Sabo for pulling us through the 3 - 5 am time slot (i.e., the time were my eyes really betray me and my body thinks it's nap time).
And thanks to Montana for its beautiful skies. Despite the robbery being irritating, I still got to look at this every day:
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