A Hijacking and the Fallout From It Pt.2

This is part 2 of a 3 part Post. Click here for part 1

And this, was when, my workload exploded!

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

My old vehicle was completely inadequate. It was too small and it had too many problems. Every additional day I drove it, I had a constant fear it was going to break down again on me. Every day I got up to go to work, I constantly stressed that I wouldn’t have room for all my work. When this did happen (on multiple occasions) I was under constant pressure trying to find someone to share my workload. The same colleague who helped get this one up and running again, lent me his old vehicle, a larger more reliable one. Some breathing space at last! Even though this constituted a twelve mile round trip to switch vehicles (this doesn’t seem like a lot, but after ten or eleven hours of driving and with constant stress and anxiety, this is last thing you want to be doing). But this relief only lasted two days. My work colleague needed his vehicle back as his other one had a mechanical fault.

STRESS! PRESSURE!! STRESS! PRESSURE!

One day after this, my workload was so intense that I had to contact my wife and ask her to drive to my workplace and fill her car with everything that I couldn’t fit in. It was madness, she had no visability, and took the dangerous risk of driving the 18.5m round trip along roads and motorways. I was extremely fortunate that she was off work that day, and after I had previously abused her car, she was still willing to come to my aid. In fact it’s only when writing this, that I realise the uncomfortable and dangerous circumstances that I put her through. So I must make public my admiration, respect and love for the woman who agreed to commit to a union with me, for better or wrose, and the sacrifices that she made with me during my trials.

Unfortunately this meant that that I also had to make the 18.5m round trip to retrieve the workload that was now sitting in my house It was another gruelling day that ran into late evening time before I was finished. With my wife back at work the following day, I had to look at options for hire again. Unfortunately the cheapest option available to me, was the same dealership who had screwed me over. So the choice was either pay out a lot more money and deal with a different hire company, or swallow my pride and go back cap in hand to the dealership. I opted for the latter…

PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE!

I made sure to deal with the sales rep who had agreed to pay for a replacement key and the haulage charges, and to be fair, he was able to get a really good deal, but the problem was that the OLNY thing available until the following Monday (five days from this day) was something smaller than the one I was currently using). I took it anyway with the thinking that I could use it as storage and then wouldn’t have the added pressure of relying on other people. The dealership closed at 6pm so it was a very close call in making it before they closed.

STRESS! STRESS! STRESS! STRESS!

Now I had the problem of two vehicles. The hired one & the friends. I needed to return his, collect my own and get the hired one to my place of work. So I hit upon a plan. My wife would meet me at the dealership, I would park the hire on a nearby road (to avoid being locked in), we would drive to my work colleagues house (her in the car, me in the colleagues vehicle), drop off and switch vehicles (his for mine) then drive to my workplace and park my vehicle. Both of us then return to the dealership in her car where I would collect the hire and drive back home. Then the following morning, drive the hire up to my workplace and switch with my own. It was going to be a tall order but this is what needed to be done.

Of course nothing ever goes to plan. Before we we were ready to leave the dealership, I realized that I had forgotten to tell my wife to bring the key for my vehicle parked up at the friends. Disaster!!! My friend who had the spare I had given him was nowhere near his house and wouldn’t be for some hours. Double disaster!!! Not having a spare was stress on it’s own (as you’ll read later). Now we had the added toil of incorporating a trip to the house to get the key. It was around 9pm after a twenty-two mile round trip we finally got home. Cold, tired and exhausted, it wasn’t long before I climbed into bed, completely in the doldrums, my spirits low.

PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE!

Over the next five days ironically, I had very little need for a second vehicle. I was able to almost exclusively use the one vehicle and only offload a few pieces of my workload to fellow colleagues. The reason I did this is so that I wouldn’t have to drive to my customer base area, unload and then drive back to my workplace, switch vehicles and resume my responsibilities.

Just when I thought it had been a waste of time and money hiring out this other vehicle, my workload exploded again resulting in a similar situation to the previous one. I had to drive to my catchment area, offload all my work, return to my workplace, switch vehicles then retrace my exact same steps within my catchment area offloading the rest of my days work. This was another long demanding day, full of stress and pressure trying to make up for lost time.

STRESS! STRESS! STRESS! STRESS!

Another low point was the following day when it was raining very heavily, I had just got out of my vehicle very briefly to complete a job; left the vehicle running as it was parked right beside the property I was at and completed the job. I turned to get back inside the vehicle and found that it had locked itself up. Still running, the keys in the ignition. I can almost feel you cringing reading this. But fear not, this has happened to me before! This is why I no longer used this old vehicle and also when I did, I carried the spare!!! Fumbling amongst my clothing, a sense of dread fell over me. WHERE WAS THE SPARE???. Looking through the window, I could see it sitting upon the DASH!! OH, NO! I thought, I’ve forgotten to put it back in my pocket!!!

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

My first thought was that I was going to have to break a window to open the door from the inside, but mercifully, the side doors were not locked up I could get access to the front through the back via the side doors. Of course this meant opening the grill that seperated the front from the back; put my head, neck, shoulder and arm over the now folded front seat to reach the door handle, but it wasn’t something I hadn’t done before. Only problem now was that it was jammed pack full of my work! And by this I mean HUNDERDS of items! So with nothing else for it, I started to unpack, small items, large items, heavy items, items made of cardboard. In the pouring rain. Parked on a hill. With the handbrake not fully engaged (as I found out soon enough). After a very tense and stressful hour later, I was finally able to drive away, workload soggy, me soaked to the bare skin, with spare key in my soggy left pocket!

PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE!

On Monday (the following day), I returned to the dealership to swap the small hired vehicle for a much larger one that would be completely adequate for my needs. It had a larger engine and consumed more fuel but this was a trade-off that I was happier with. As I previously mentioned, I’m normally in work for around 7:30am but with the dealership not open until 8:00am, and by the time all the checks and paperwork was complete, it was after 8:30am before I could hit the road. I arrived in work after 9:00am, more than an hour and thirty minutes behind when I normally arrive. Of course this had a knock-on effect of making the rest of my workday longer. Even when trying to alleviate some of the pressure upon my shoulders, It seemed to cause more problems.

STRESS! STRESS! STRESS! STRESS!

I received a phone call later that day from the police officer handling my case. He was enquiring as to whether I had remembered any further details or had anything further I could add that might help identify the suspect/s involved in the hijacking. I had to be honest with him, I had given almost no thought to the hijacking event. I was under so much stress and pressure trying to get my original vehicle returned and making arrangements for work each day; that this was the last thing on my mind. I also recieved a call from the finance company asking for an update to their ongoing investigation. I advised them of the last contact that I’d had with the dealership and left it at that. Just like the hijacking investigation, it was useless to me at this point in time.

On that Friday I got the call to say my replacement key had arrived and my vehicle was ready to collect. They’d had a look at the back doors but deciding the fault was caused by a large dent on the side panel, they still wouldn’t be attempting repairs. For me this was an easy cop-out and as I explained to the finance company; the doors since I purchased the vehicle, had been giving me problems from time to time. The inside was a mess, everything was strewn everywhere as the thieves ransacked it, looking for anything of value.

PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE!

Documents containing my home address were lying in view, and with the thieve/s still potentially having my vehicle keys and house keys, I would have to consider changing the locks on my house doors. I felt violated, my vehicle tainted, every compartment, every inch had been rummaged through looking for something of value to sell. Personal items had been handled and discarded like trash. Not ready to use my vehicle in that state, knowing it would be too time consuming anyway to transfer my workload into it; and realising that I needed it out of the dealership before they closed, I parked in an adjacent shopping centre car park (for which I would later recieve a fine for exceeding the maximum stay). So out I went again, apprehensive, knowing that access to it, was protected only by a couple of cable ties on the back doors. Not good, not good at all.

STRESS! STRESS! STRESS! STRESS!

End of part 2.

Click here for part.3