Pet Peeve #1

I really dislike dishonest people. Here are cases I've come across in the past few days.

1. I went to a Giants game last Friday and found a parking lot advertising their $5.00 flat rate. I parked my car, and checked with the attendant (or maybe owner) about the flat rate. He said, "Yes, $5.00" As I was getting out of my car, he asked what time I'm planning on leaving. I said, "I dunno. In a few hours. After the game." "Oh, it's going to be $10.00." Confused, I asked him "But you just said it was $5.00." His reasoning is they raise their prices for special events. Whatever. There is no way I'm going to give this thief an extra $5.00, so I drove across the street to another lot, never mentioned anything about going to the game, and just paid the $5.00 rate.

2. I always thought that my place of work is a pretty safe place. The parking lot is out in the open with plenty of people and car traffic. So yesterday, I got into my car after work and started the engine. There was a loud VROOOOMMM!! What the heck? Is that my car? Sounds like a Harley. Turned it off and started it again. VROOOOMMM!! Oh my! There's something wrong with my car. I called my dad. He came and slipped underneath the car to take a look, and immediately exclaimed, "WAAAA!!! Someone stole something from your car!!" (All in Chinese, of course.) He continued clucking his tongue in disbelief as I bent down to take a look, and yup, a big part was definitely missing. So it seems like someone slipped underneath my car in broad daylight and with an electric saw, dismembered my catalytic converter and ran.

I learned a few things yesterday and today.

1. I learned what a catalytic converter is. It basically makes your car exhaust cleaner for the environment.

2. Catalytic converter thieves are on the rise. There have been many cases reported in the bay area. The main reason why they steal this is because of the precious metals that can be extracted from this, i.e. platinum, rhodium, and palladium. They're shipped off to other countries where this process takes place.

3. There really isn't any way I could have protected myself from this. Apparently, these horrible, nasty, slimy thieves target Toyota SUVs and trucks because they're particularly easy to get to. They're easy to get under, and they're only screwed on with four bolts. But if it's harder, it doesn't deter them in any way if they have an electric saw handy.

4. It can cost up to $1300 to replace.

Yeah, this sucks big time. I think I'm having a "black" year so far. So many unpleasant things have happened. Well, some good things happened too, but as of now, the bad outweighs the good. Ugh. At least I'm healthy and have my family and friends. =(