In which I am incredibly pissed, bemusedly surprised, and then mildly insulted, by the actions of someone who I never met

As I came home on the metro, to the supposedly "secure" metro parking lot, I went through my usual routine. I go up to my car, unlock the door, sit down, and then notice that something is wrong, vis-à-vis the fact that my passenger side seat is not supposed to be covered in broken glass, and that there's supposed to be a window there. And a radio. And my dash is supposed to be intact. F#&k. Now, I am incredibly pissed.

So, I sit in my car, wondering how this can happen to me, again (happened a couple of years ago, same MO, same target, different place). I call the wife, who is, of course, wonderful and supportive. She offers to come get me, and I tell her "no, no. I'll just go back into the station and call the police." Sigh.

I trudge back down to the station, and get the Station Manager. I explain through the glass partition surrounding their booth, and the drive-through quality intercom, that my car was broken into. He asks me if my car was parked in 5A, which it was. He says that they already knew, and that an officer had already been there. He then said that he would call the officer back to take a report. This exchange was as decently peasant as can be expected, considering the quality of the speaker and the ambient noise level, resulting in me saying "what? could you repeat that?" a lot.

And the Metro Transit cop comes. he asks me all of the details, etc. Very nice, very professional and friendly. I have no complaints on that end, surprisingly. He tells me that several cars were broken into. This does make me feel less alone, though not any better. Then he asks me to describe my radio. I do so, as best as I can, figuring it's for the report. He then, asks me "is this your radio?"

With close to a magician's flourish, he produces my car radio, fully intact, with the mounting brackets still on it, and all of the cables attached, none the worse for wear from their sojourn out of my car. Neat trick. I am now bemusedly surprised.

He goes on to explain that the person robbed my car, then took a bunch of stuff from another guy's car. This included, apparently, a couple of TVs and the guy's radio. Then, some third guy left the valet key somewhere in his brand new car. So, our enterprising robber broke in, took the valet key, and stole third guy's car. he then loads third guy's car with the stuff from second guy's car. He leaves my radio on the ground beside third (or second) guy's car. And drives away with his ill gotten gains.

I am mildly comforted by the fact that I still have a radio. And that it could have been worse for me. And, that since this guy graduated from burglary to Grand Theft Auto, the police might actually look for him. But maybe not. Anyway, I take the elevator back up to where my car is, to figure out what to do next. I call my wife, and talk to her while the elevator goes up. When I get to my floor, there's my wife, cell phone in hand, completely unbidden. She's pretty great.

I then drove the car to a neighbor of my folks. They have a garage that they let me put the car in, because I didn't know how long it will be until the window gets fixed. And I don't own a tarp or car cover. So, I'm driving along and pondering that while I am glad I have insurance, this is still going to cost me at least a hundred bucks, and easily twice that in time off and annoyance. At least I have the radio. Which is good. But in the midst of my pondering, I can't help being mildly insulted. The guy went through the effort of breaking my glass, tearing up my dash, ripping out my radio, and taking it with him. But after all that effort, he didn't think enough of the radio to take it with him. Really, was it that bad of a radio?