carol's kitchen

Friday, April 28, 2017

MISERY



If you ever start thinking your somebody, I’ll tell you what: this city will bring you down.  Cut me down to size is what they did.  I was too sure of myself: imagined that after helping to write the policies and guideline for the newly created Arts & culture commission, after having stood before the City council talking about the need to add the commission to the new general plan, having spoken out and written about the importance of public art in Vallejo, after all that, the city council, in its infinite wisdom, failed to appoint me to a seat, however well  qualified I may be.  Not good enough, or perhaps I’ve been too outspoken.  I haven’t hidden my opinions about the art in Vallejo, my likes and dislikes, my thoughts about what sort of art we need adorning our city, to make us proud. 

Tuesday, April 04, 2017

DETECTIVE STORY

Last Wednesday, I went to the Chase bank on Tennessee and Broadway. Standing in front of the teller, finishing up my business, I placed my keys on the ledge in front of me so I could sign the receipt. Just as I was about to put the keys in my pocket, my phone rang, and I grabbed the phone from my pocket instead, spoke for half a minute, then looked back to my keys.

But they were gone.

Several people at the bank tried to help me find them. They weren’t in my car, or in my pockets, not in my bag or on the floor, or anywhere. While the search was going on, certain the key-snatcher would steal it, I kept an eye on my little red Honda FIT, parked in the first space in front of the big glass doors of the bank. I asked the security guard to continue the vigil while I went home to get my duplicate key. A kind customer at the bank, Tom Green, a veteran and a gentleman, who lives in Country Club Crest, and to whom I am eternally grateful, drove me home and back. When we returned some 20 minutes later, my car was still there.


Why would someone snatch my keys and not steal my car? It makes no sense. Once home I decided to wait a day or so before making a new set of keys, on the off chance someone picked them up by mistake and brought them back to the bank. But I never really believed that would happen.

Next day, I got a call from a fellow named Jason who works at the Fairfield Public Library, asking me to call Detective John Corcoran of the Pinole Police Department about some keys. Imagine my shock when Detective Corcoran told me he’d arrested a couple driving a stolen car in Pinole the day before, and a search turned up my keys in the back of their car. My library card was on the key-ring and that’s how he found me. The little plastic card contained a bar-code that allowed Jason to trace me in the library’s data base. How about them apples!


As there was a warrant out for the woman’s arrest, Detective Corcoran was also able to search their motel room, where he found piles of mail stolen from Vallejo. Incidentally, he told me the mail would be turned over to the Post Office, but would probably never be processed because the Post Office to too understaffed to handle that work.

Why didn’t they steal my car? They could have had they acted quickly. The detective guessed they may have had a change of heart. I’ll never know. I didn’t press charges.


The story gets better: Detective Corcoran not only found my keys, and found me, he drove all the way up to Vallejo to deliver them in person. What a fine fellow!

Heartfelt thanks and three cheers for Detective John Corcoran of the Pinole Police Department — and to the Good Samaritan at the bank, Tom Green of Country Club Crest.

And here’s a $1 million idea for the Vallejo Police Department: Manufacture and sell small plastic cards for key-rings with bar-codes containing the owner’s ID that only police can read.