I know that you’re
young and new to stealing vehicles, or my husband would have walked out to an
empty spot in the driveway rather than a vehicle with thousands of dollars worth
of damage to the ignition and steering column. I suspect that you think it’s a
relatively victimless crime, and that you don’t really want to hurt anyone. I
also believe that you didn’t think about what you were doing for too long.
When your
inexperience in car theft left our vehicle unable to start, you moved on to a
neighbor’s car. You succeeded there, and drove off with her car. You drove it a
few miles and totaled it. That car was actually her college-aged daughter’s
car. Her daughter goes to school and works. She only had liability coverage on
that vehicle, and may not be able to afford a new one. They currently have to
try to do everything with one car. It’s rough, and it may not be possible. Your
joyride was not victimless.
As for us, we are
out an insurance deductible that we can ill afford, and our rates will likely
go up since we had to make a claim, which is another expense for which we did
not budget. It took over a week for our car to be repaired. While we were
figuring out transportation for two adults with long commutes, we each had to
miss work while trading days with our other vehicle. That situation resulted in
lost PTO and lost wages. You also don’t know us and how this incident has
caused more hurt and hardship at a time in our lives when we’ve had plenty of
both.
No one in our
neighborhood feels quite as safe as we did before you crept around our homes
and driveways in the middle of the night. Your thoughtless actions harmed us
and our neighbors in many ways, tangible and intangible.
I am not mad,
though. I am sad and exhausted. I really didn’t want to call the police, but we
had to do so because we couldn’t afford to not make an insurance claim. If they
find you, what sort of justice will be served? You’ll end up with a record for
a night of stupidity. Depending on your age, you’ll enter either the juvenile
or the adult court, jail, and prison systems. You’ll learn to be harder. You
will probably become more skilled at stealing vehicles. You’ll learn to shut
down. None of that does anyone any good. It’s not justice in any sense. Our
justice system is flawed, and I want to reform it before I see anyone caught in
it.
I wanted to find
you, and ask for restitution. I strongly suspect that you don’t have the money
to pay us back, but what I would love would be for you to come by once a week
or once every two weeks and cut grass for us and our neighbor, shovel our
walks, etc. until you’ve worked off the money and time we lost. I want you to
get to know us and our neighborhood. It’s harder to make bad decisions when you
understand how much they can hurt people, especially people that you know. I
want to bring you lemonade and invite you in for lunch. I want you to stay in
school and have time for healthy extracurricular activities or a weekend job. I
want this to be the worst and the stupidest thing you ever do.
Since our system is
not set up to allow any of us to see each other as humans and work toward
restorative justice, I hope you have someone in your life who can help you make
better choices before you’re caught stealing another vehicle or making another
rash decision. Your fingerprints haven’t matched in the system. Please keep it
that way for your sake and the sake of your community.
Love,
A Person Who Wants
Good Things For You
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