I should've known better. That said, it sucks that my car got broken into in the wee hours of Thursday, March 29, and, even worse, that the culprit or culprits snatched my stereo and a shoebox of CDs. That's right, a shoebox stuffed full with roughly thirty discs, jewel boxes and all. Like I said, I should've known better. Perhaps I should have gone ahead and left a delicious snack for them, like Teddy Grahams, just bursting with sugar to give late-night thieves the energy they need.

But I digress. With obligatory police report and insurance claim both filed, I started putting together a list of which discs got ganked, which wasn't too difficult because I'd just stocked the box with new driving music. There were a few Guided by Voices discs that I'd been listening to in anticipation of the big show at the Hurricane a couple of nights before, some local stuff, some old favorites, and George Michael's Faith, an underrated album. Or at least I like to think it is. Perhaps I should know better about that, too. Anyway, I added in-depth notation of identifying marks on the CDs (a good deal were review promos), then started taking the list to area stores that hawk used discs, in hopes that if some shady character attempted to sell one of my ex-possessions, the clerk would do me the favor of buying them back and selling them to me for whatever they paid. As a first-time victim, I wasn't quite sure how all this worked.

For the most part, people were willing to help, especially at my first stop, CD Warehouse at 8316 Metcalf, where the girl working the counter was both sympathetic to my plight and reassured me in my musical taste as well, George Michael notwithstanding. She was also willing to fax my list to all, like, 800 of the chain's other local locations. Few people know this, but there are actually more of these shops in Kansas City than QuikTrips, although CD Warehouse's beef jerky selection is not as extensive. Seventh Heaven and Disc Warehouse, not to be confused with the aforementioned and similarly named CD Warehouse, also said they'd make sure a copy got to their other stores. Music Exchange and Recycled Sounds were both very gracious, too, and even the hippest employees felt sorry enough for me to let the whole George Michael thing go.

Like the others, Streetside Records on Metcalf was happy to keep an eye out, but it turned out that the dastardly thieves had already visited the chain's Westport location. It turns out a couple of guys had stopped in Thursday morning with some of those discs still in the shoebox, and Streetside had bought back quite a few of them. By then, however, only four still remained on the shelf, though the nice people at Streetside were kind enough to just let me have them without giving them any money, effectively taking a loss on their end, under the understandable condition that I provided a copy of the police report.

But then there was Hastings, where some guy with a nametag that said Music Manager was less than receptive to my plight, bordering close toward full-on irritated. He's not to be blamed for it, either, because as a former employee of the Lawrence store I can attest that time does actually slow down if not stop altogether when you're there on the clock, but hey, I'd like to think that I at least offered a passable showing of faked enthusiasm. But after I delivered my song and dance, which actually involved neither singing nor dancing, he mumbled something about volume of discs coming in, and how they couldn't decline to buy back discs just because they suspected them to be stolen. Then, rather than simply waiting until I'd left the store to pitch my list, he attempted to hand it back to me. However, as I already had many copies of it, I politely declined.

It is important to note also that this was the Hastings in Olathe, not the one in Lawrence, where the excellent customer service has no doubt only improved exponentially since I quit. Regardless, guess where I won't be buying copies of the missing discs to replace the holes in my collection? Besides, some supreme being invented the BMG Music Service solely for circumstances such as these, and Robert Bishop, Bob Bishop, Robert Zimmerman Bishop, Rob Bishop, Esq., and Mrs. Roberta Bishop will soon receive seven free discs for the piddly promise of buying one within the next year. I'll still be frequenting Hastings, though, for that particular location is where I now plan to fence all stolen goods from this day forward.

Well, well. Looks like I learned more than just one lesson from my misfortune after all.