Thursday 28 May 2009

For the price of a cup of tea


IMG_6883
Originally uploaded by manc_ill_kid
So, yesterday morning I stumble out at 10am to move my car, to avoid getting a parking ticket, and I discover that my wee side window has been knocked in and my first generation iPod Nano 2gb has been nicked.

I was quite pissed off.

Its just sensless. It just makes no sense. The sums don't add up.

The window will cost about £70 for Autoglass to fix, my car insurance doesn't cover contents, and the damage is within the excess, so I just have to pay up.

No the iPod Nano cost about £100 when I first got it three/four years ago, its an old old iPod Nano. Its not the latest model, its not cool, its black and very scratched and all it had on it was the audiobook of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

So I was sat in my car calling the police and autoglass and clearing up the broken glass all over the drivers seat when the traffic warden, parking ninja walks past, eyeing me warily, he glanced at my reg plate and tapped on his handheld, and wandered away when he saw me watching him. This could be another parking ticket worth £60.

So in total the incident has cost me
damage £70
iPod £100
parking ticket £60
TOTAL £230

Was it worth it?

If the value of that that was stolen is more than the cost of damage?

Maybe, the parking ticket was incidental and since the iPod cost more than the damage to the car, then its just kind of possible, using some fucked up maths that the net gain of steal the iPod was £30.

But not quite.

Its an old iPod, most entry level mobile phone have better music playing powers. It's comparitavely as archaic as stealing a video recorder. Heck, a few houses down the street there's a computer monitor in the garden, and further down there's a 36 inch TV waiting next to wheelie bins. eBay tells me that the value of a second-hand black first generation 2gb iPod Nano is £15

It makes no sense.

Why break into a car to steal something so worthless?

I had a rant to my attractive young ladyfriend. She pointed out that it was probably just some crack-head in need of their next fix, so of course it doesn't make sense.

No, I can't handle that. Could the crack head have just thought "I need fifteen quid for my next fix, I could get a job!" or borrow money for some kind of junkie micro-finance firm, or borrow money off a bloke in the pub, or steal a wheel barrow from a garden, or anything.

Why the damage?

Drat

The loss of an iPod I can handle, Christ, I'd probably just assume I'd lost it down the back of the sofa. But the broken car window, why?

I'm so skint.

I'm so skint, I have less than no money, I have negative thousands on my credit card, that at some point in the uncertain future I'm going to have to pay off. And now £70 more in debt.

And I may never know what happens at the end of The Shock Doctrine.

Do the capitalists win? Does Naomi Klein make Uncle Miltie see the error of his ways? Are all free-markets overwealmed with protectionism and state control?

What happens?

And can I have a new iPod?

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