In the early noughts, we stayed in a hotel near downtown Toronto.

While we were getting ready to check out, I took some of the luggage to the car. The car was in the hotel’s extra expensive underground parking. As I approached the car, it looked like the driver-side front window was open. As I got closer, I saw that it wasn’t so much open as smashed in.

Sh*t!

I looked closer and found the my pile of CDs was missing.

Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! 

Then I remembered that I’d left my passport in the glove box.

Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! 

I checked the glove box and found that my passport was there.

I went to the front desk and discussed this with the clerk. The clerk cheerfully refunded the money I’d spent on the hotel’s extra expensive underground parking and suggested that I call the police for a report.

I called the police and gave them the information. The officer then gave me a report number for the insurance company and started saying his goodbyes.

I interrupted his goodbyes to ask if he was going to send someone out to look at the car and take prints and such.

With a deadpan voice, he suggested that if I found any prints, then I should forward them to him. I promised that I would. 

A friend of mine taped some plastic over the hole where my window had been (thanks Ken). It was still noisy but not as bad as it had been. 

The window was fixed on the following day at home. 

As far as I can tell, the moral of the story is “Don’t leave your passport in your car because some idiots might find it when they’re stealing your other stuff” but I’m open to better ones.