The downside of borrowing a car

Did I mention that our kind friends lent us a car to save us having to hire one? Did I also mention that it's a Jaguar, although an older model? On its first night in our Auckland hotel parking lot it was burgled, possibly because it's such an upscale car. None of the other cars were broken into. The side window was smashed in and our phone charger and GPS holder were taken, together with Barry's favourite pair of sunglasses. It seems a pointless theft: how much can they get for some cables and a pair of sunglasses that our children say are definitely 'uncool'.

Our friends just shrugged and said 'Lots of this going on in Auckland, we'll just get it fixed'. The car was only gone for a day. One of their cars was broken into in their driveway last year.

But what a bother to replace these things. The phone charger wasn't too hard, it's a recent model and I bought a replacement charger in an electronics shop. The GPS unit, however, was never imported into NZ and therefore there are no holders to be had. I was able to cobble together something from a cell phone holder and the USB cable that I brought to back it up.

So we've learned the hard way to never leave anything in the car that might indicate to a thief that there might be electronic items inside. We hide the cables and take the GPS unit with us. We've noticed lots of signs in parking lots that say 'Car thieves operate in this area, take your valuables with you'.