Come talkin' that trash and we'll pull ya card

This afternoon, somebody busted the window of a coworker's car and tried to steal the radio. The window is broken, the passenger seat is down as far as it will go ... but the radio is intact.

Apparently, he forgot a screwdriver. He also forgot to bust the security camera. Dumbass.

It's not so bad working downtown. I mean, I used to live about a mile from the office in a nice little gated community. And while Matt was here, schlepping around with the downtown bums, he taught me how to identify situations in which I'd be safe versus those in which I'd be in trouble.

For example, panhandlers generally avoid the suits who've walked to the park with their lunch and a laptop to take advantage of the park's free wi-fi. I think the panhandlers know that they won't get any money out of the suits, so they focus their efforts elsewhere. And apparently, they tend to fight and steal from each other more than others.

Still, I'm often one of the last people out the door. I walk out to my car alone in the dark. I pan across the parking lot with the security camera, but it doesn't look around the shadowy corners ... you know, the obvious place somebody might hide.

I've been threatened on my way into work, but never on the way back to my car. (By the way, being threatened in an alley is a pretty scary experience. I don't recommend it.) I don't put a lot of trust in the security camera — it does a good job of providing evidence after the fact, but it's kind of a lousy method of prevention and protection.

I'd invest in pepper spray, but it's illegal here. I know how to SING in one fell swoop (ooh ooh, who knows what SING stands for?), but there's got to be a better way to get from car to office to car without putting myself in danger.

[Edit: Wow. This post is evidence of what happens when I write fast and don't proof. Clear as mud.]