May the Jeep Rest in Peace...

As many of you know (and many of you may not know since I can't remember if I ever even included it in my posts), Jason's Jeep was stolen right out of our driveway just over 4 weeks ago. I will set the record straight right now and say that yes, the keys were accidentally left in it, but that still doesn't give someone the right to steal your vehicle.

Jason has been driving a rental car since Saturday, March 28, which the insurance company does pay for since we have that coverage. On Friday he called to see what we needed to do next, as they had told us we would need to wait about 30 days and see if the Jeep is found. They told him that since there had been no activity on his case that the rental car coverage would end on Saturday and offered him a settlement for the total loss of his Jeep. He accepted it and they would be sending a check to our insurance agent's office overnight so that we could pick it up on Monday.

This meant we needed to buy a new car ... NOW! We didn't want to pay for the rental car ourselves and were actually somewhat excited that the waiting was coming to an end and we would just be able to put it behind us and just go purchase another car. My mom came over around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon and stayed with the kids (Jordan was sleeping from 1:30 until about 5:30, so it was just her and Meggan for the most part) and Jason and I took off to the dealership to see what we could find.

We ended up buying a 2007 Toyota Camry, tan in color, and it's a really nice car! It's used but it's new to us, with only 28,000 miles on it. A few hours later we were finally signing the papers and I followed him to Enterprise to drop the rental car off. We were so excited -what a great feeling to just be able to move on!

Even longer story short, I saw there was a message on our answering machine at about 10:00 on Saturday night. It was left at 6:00 and it was the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department trying to get ahold of Jason Dew and let him know that his 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee had been recovered and towed to Hick's Towing and that he needed to call them and they would let him know what he needed to do next. I WAS FREAKING OUT! What would the insurance company do? We can't return this car we just bought. Oh, man, are we going to be screwed...

I called our neighbor (yes, at 10:30 at night), who is a police officer, and he went out to his car and looked up the report on his computer. The report listed the incidents of the attempt to pull the Jeep over, the kid (yes, some 18-year-old kid) deciding to lead the police on a high-speed chase, hitting 2 parked cars and side-swiping another as he tried to pass it on the right shoulder of the road, and ultimately running into a chain-link fence in someone's yard. At this point he decided to get out and take off on foot, at which time the officer released the K-9 dogs to track him down. They found him hiding in a house somewhere nearby and he was arrested. Let's just say this isn't his first run-in with the law, or even his first vehicle theft... It was nice to know that he had been caught and was arrested, nice for us personally!

So yesterday I headed to the insurance agent's office and picked up our settlement check and gave them the title to Jason's Jeep. They handed me the check and said they would take care of us. Since the Jeep is now most likely pretty much totaled anyway, I'm sure there would have been a settlement either way. So our nerves were settled down and we were just happy, again, to be able to have this whole horrible experience behind us.

I'm sorry that was such a long post, but it's a long story to tell. I just pray that nobody else ever has to go through this experience. The good news is that we were not hurt and they didn't attempt to come in and rob us or anything like that (he has a few robberies on his record as well). He very easily could have opened up the garage door and come in, and we are so thankful that we were all safe!

Thanks for listening. I'm gearing up for my last work trip until the end of May and getting ready to head out to Palm Desert, California, tomorrow. It should actually be a pretty nice trip, even though I have to work! :)