The Day They Broke Into Our Car
And all I wanted to do was cry
It was the stupidest mistake I ever did. A mistake with the most serious consequences. I should have known better. But then again. It’s not me who smashed the windows. It was me who had left stuff inside.
But I don’t write this to complain. Or to get any sympathy. I write it a little for myself to process what happened and a lot for others not to do the same mistake. It’s all I can do now.
It was late at night and we went for a little party in a club. I left my handbag that doesn’t look like a handbag inside the car. But what is worse. I left the laptop into there too. Including three hard drives.
Yes, they took it all.
I don’t care about that bag. Or my wallet. My credit card was blocked in no time. I didn’t care about the new power bank they took. It was an expensive one, but hey money can replace it.
I had a pair of socks in that bag. A pair of socks a friend of mine had made. No, I can’t replace this one with money. It hurts but it’s not the worst.
The laptop. Yes, that’s a different story. Also replaceable with money but it costs a lot more to replace that one. Plus, we’re abroad. I was writing and publishing on it daily. Editing videos. All of it.
Those hard drives? With years of photos and videos on it. No money in the world will be able to replace that. Nothing. Sure, I had most pictures backed up on another hard drive at my parents’ place but not those from 2022.
Those pictures are gone.
Forever.
Let’s face the facts
- Two broken car windows
- Stolen laptop
- 3 stolen hard drives
- One powerbank less
- Wallet gone
- No drivers license for an upcoming road trip
- One credit card less
I lost a little cash in my wallet. I don’t know what cards I had in there but except for my ID, driver’s license and credit card nothing important.
I had an instant picture of me and my husband from our wedding. That picture is gone.
The rest I don’t care about what was inside that bag.
But the laptop was more my husband’s laptop than mine. And he didn’t even know it was in the car. He would have never left in there if he knew.
Doesn’t help now, right?
Let’s look at what I did to prevent a disaster and what I didn’t do.
Things I did good in prevention
- Have multiple credit cards
- Have credit cards in different places
- Know the easy and quick way how to block my cards
- Have a laminated copy of my documents
- Not have my passport with me when going out
- Pack away cameras in a sports bag
- Have a travel insurance that (hopefully) will refund (part of) the financial losses
Traveling for years in foreign countries I have adapted to certain safety standards which helped me now to prevent a bigger disaster.
In this passage, I do mention a sports bag. Yes, there was a large sports bag in the back of our vehicle. That was where I had most of our skydiving equipment, cameras and clothes. I guess that bag didn’t look like it had valuables inside.
Fortunately!
But also, because of my travels, I should have known better. And there are more than enough things I did wrong that led to the break-in.
Things I messed up
- Leaving a bag with my wallet in the car. At night. Visible.
- Leaving the laptop bag behind the driver seat. More or less visible.
- Not telling my husband about any of those things
- Being intoxicated & living the moment instead of thinking at the consequences and dangers around me
- Not having backed up pictures this year on another hard drive
- Not having pictures stored in a cloud
- Taking hard drives with me when I surely didn’t need them
I should add to this that the day we came back to Namibia my husband was preaching to me not to leave things inside the car. People break and steal stuff here. He said.
I didn’t ignore him but I didn’t follow his advice. I thought I knew better because I had lived for five years in this country. And nothing ever happened to me.
But I guess I had been away from here for too long. I had lived in Germany for six months where we didn’t even lock our home most days.
I surely had gotten too comfortable.
But all those things I’m telling you don’t make it better. It’s done. The stuff is gone. And while I could continue making accusations for myself it won’t fix anything.
And I’m still waiting for my husband to say
“I told you so.”
Not once since this happened was he angry at me while he had all the right for it. He just said “no it wasn’t your fault or did you break into the car?”
That’s one way to look at it. It also won’t make stuff come back but maybe help my guilt disappear. Or maybe that feeling should stay. Just so that I am more careful in the future. Keeping this awful memory at the back of my mind.
I’m sure there will be many people saying how naive and stupid I was. And I guess they are right but I wrote this article not to get empathy but to make sure others won’t be so careless and won’t do the same mistake as I did.
Learn from my mistake and do better. Prepare for the worst and always be aware of your surroundings.
And I’ll stop my tears now. They won’t fix anything either.
Stories about other things that happened to me while traveling:
Join my email list here if you would like to read more photo essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writers’ stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).
WordPress | Shutterstock | Instagram | YouTube | Mailchimp | Amazon