Around 4am on Sunday morning, my roommate woke me up. “Katie, someone is breaking into your car,” she said. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window over our driveway where I saw the light in my car was on. I grabbed my phone and dialed 911 informing the operator that someone was breaking into my car. The police operator was cool and calm, quickly getting all the information from me. She kept me on the phone as I stared into my car.

From the angle I was at, I couldn’t actually see anyone, but I saw the light on in my car. I knew that as long as the light was on in my car, someone was going through my car. I wanted the light to stay on so that the police could arrive and catch whoever was going through my stuff, stealing my belongings and rummaging through my items.

[Some back story: I park my car in a driveway. I’m probably one of the few people who live on a busy street in Somerville that is lucky enough to have a driveway spot. A few weeks ago, one of my roommates said her bicycle was stolen from behind the house. Another roommate said her car had been attempted to be broken into multiple times.]

The light in my car shut off. I told the phone operator that I thought that the person in my car had left. About 30 seconds later, three Somerville police cars sped up to my driveway. They didn’t have sirens on and came in from different directions.

I was bummed that the police missed the actual thieves in mid break in, but was super impressed that they showed up a mere two minutes after I called the police. The police circled my car with flashlights. I asked the 911 operator if I could go down and talk to the police, but they told me to wait for the police to give the okay. A few seconds later the police radioed that I could come downstairs. The phone operator actually apologized about the break in.

I walked downstairs and spoke to the police. When I said that they JUST left, two of the three cars drove off looking for the culprits. The third police officer walked me to the car.

The police officer asked me what was stolen.

“My GPS,” I replied.

“What type of GPS?” he asked.

“Why the most expensive type, of course,” I said trying to ease the tension. To make sure the report was accurate, the police officer pulled out his phone and helped me look up what type of GPS was stolen.

The police said they were going to file a report and I would need to go down to the station on Monday to get the report to file with my car insurance agency. It was around that time that my anger kicked in. I started to go off about how I moved from a different neighborhood to Porter Square because it is suppose to be safer. I started walking around, huffing about how I pay way too much for my apartment to have to deal with my car being broken into. I felt like Tim Meadows in ‘Mean Girls’.

The officer calmed me down. He assured me that no matter what neighborhood I live in, these things happen. He said that they would be patrolling my street to make sure the thieves don’t come back again (like I said this was the third or fourth attempt they made). The police officer also offered to wait for me to get back upstairs to my apartment before leaving the driveway.

So I’d like to take a minute to thank the Somerville Police. Normally everyone gripes about the police, but these officers were incredibly helpful. They listened to me gripe; they calmed me down and assured me that I was safe. I think they realized how jarred I was by seeing that someone was in my car and they did a great job assuring me that they would keep a lookout on the street I live on.

Next time you see a police officer, be sure to give them a smile.