Yesterday, I took my late father in law's truck to be inspected. For those of you who do not have state vehicle inspection, this is where the state takes your money every year and gives some to a garage mechanic to take a cursory look at your vehicle to see if it is safe to drive.
Before I left my house, I stuck my sunglasses in a sunglass pouch that I have clipped to a bag.....a man purse, that I take with me when I go out places. It also holds my cigars, money, some tools, etc. The sunglass pouch I have is neoprene and it is pretty reliable in keeping the contents safe.
The person who worked at the garage drove the truck into the bay and they worked for about an hour. I sat in the lobby and read. Note that my bag and sunglasses were IN the truck the whole time.
When they were done, I paid and drove the truck to my brother in law's house to drop it off. He is taking his father's truck.
My wife picked me up and we drove home. When I got home, I looked for my sunglasses and they were gone.
I called my brother in law to ask him to look in the truck in case they had fallen out of the pouch. This was VERY unlikely though and I knew it.
In the meantime I searched all around on the chance that I had been confused and never really stuck them in that pouch.
The whole time I searched, I kept thinking of that son of a bitch who worked on the truck. The most likely scenario was that he stole the glasses. They ARE $200 Costa Del Mar glasses.
As I searched I became more frustrated and began to determine my tact for approaching the situation with this garage. it took some nerve to steal someone's stuff right from their car, but how could I prove it????? I KNEW that the glasses NEVER "fell" out of that pouch, but would the owner of the garage believe this to be proof that his employee was dishonest. I had worked with these sorts before............I knew how difficult is was to prove they stole things or acted dishonestly in some other way.
I noticed a list of employee names in the lobby at the garage and I tried to recall these. Perhaps it would be better to handle this "one on one" with this thieving jerk and I began to allow some rage fantasies creep into my head.
Either way..........this piece of **** was going to get it.
Then the phone rang and it was my nephew............he found my glasses in the truck on the floor.