This past weekend has turned out to be a crap weekend.
Friday, after getting home from work, I parked my car in the gated parking lot outside our apartment building. We didn't really do anything over the weekend, so I did not have a need to use my car until Monday. I work from home on Mondays, so I hadn't even gone out to my car all morning. I got ready to leave so I could have lunch with my wife.
Disaster.
I opened the car door to see the dash had been pulled back, plastic pieces were all over the passenger seat, my own multi-tool was out and in the passenger seat, and my stereo was gone. Thankfully, the thieves took my car antenna, bent it all out of shape, and used it as a slim-jim to unlock my door, so, no broken glass.
When I started up the car, almost everything was okay. The climate control still works, the rear defrost still works, the headlights and parking lights come on, it switched from dims to brights, the windshield wipers work. There were two very important things that were not working, however; turn signals and hazards.
I took it up to the garage I normally take my car to, just to see if they could diagnose the issue with the signals. They said they don't do electrical work, but that a shop just down the street did good electrical work. Naturally, I went on down to see them. They couldn't get me in that day, so I brought my car back early Tuesday morning.
The impression I got from them was that the wires had been damaged when the stereo was pulled out, but that all they needed to do was to repair the wires. When I hadn't heard from them by lunchtime, I had Mary drop me off after we finished. The car was done. 'Hooray,' right? Wrong.
I walked in to be slapped in the face with a $300+ bill. That's right, folks. Over $300 to repair some wires. The explanation I got was that 'it wasn't fun.'
You see, I don't know enough about cars to know that I don't know enough. Bottom line, though, is that I got screwed by the mechanic.
The mechanic had reinstalled my old stereo, but, having no antenna, I still could not get any reception to speak of.
Today, I went by a local auto parts store and picked up a new antenna ($5). The feeding FM cable behind the stereo must have been damaged also, as I still do not get any radio reception.
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