Nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills, carjacking skills...

"Said Twig"

If you are now following us on our twitter account @ twitter.com/lunchboxcrew you may have noticed we hit up a food truck in Winter Garden.  The El Salvadorian truck took up shop on the side of 50, we will have a more detailed post on it soon, right now it is not the point.

The agenda paned out as follows:

1. El Salvadorian treat...niice
2. Cold drinks (Chevron was just across the street)
3. Successful tweet with location via the "charging" phone
4. Breaking into cars (we have futures @ pop-a-lock)

What that translates too? One kick ass story and one hell of a time.  

The food was good, oh man was it good, a perfect ending to yet another crazy night at the job.  Winter Garden being no where near HQ, we started to head out shortly after we arrived.  I had my passenger door open with some music going while we stood outside eating our El Salvadorian delight.  As we started to leave, frank is throwing plates away, and I kicked my door closed.  My foot left the door and I stood, watching in slow motion, the door coming to a full close.  All awhile seeing flashes of images of my keys in my ignition, my cellphone nearing dead, and frank crawling into his truck.  Once the earth started spinning in full rotation, I jumped into action...banged on the tailgate of the truck and started with phone calls.

Of course I get a barrage of dead end calls, instant voice mails and no text replies.  I have a spare key at the house but it will not be for another hour and a half for it to arrive.  What to do, what to do...so we jump in the car and one of us is using the last of our cell battery to youtube "breaking into cars," while the other starts calling locksmiths.

These guys are criminal! All of them! Wait times anywhere from 30 minutes and 2 hours ranging from $35 (plus $15 for getting their ass out of bed) and $85 to come out and open my door.  No thank you, I will wait for the spare to arrive.  Wait there is a sheriff, he can help! Nope...no luck, liability he says, people like to get sue happy once they get home and see the officer chipped the paint on the door or something.  Thanks guys.

Enter "man working late at night," not going to say where he came from or who he was, but I will tell you how he helped.  We happen to notice this guy and figured that it wouldn't hurt to see if he could help.  Here is how it went down:

"Excuse me, was wondering if you could help out, I locked my keys in my car, and spending $80 is not an option when I can have a key out here before a locksmith even shows up."

"I cannot personally help you , but if I give you a slim jim would that help?"

"Yeah! that would be great, its worth a shot.  Don't know how to use one but it is worth a try...right?"

"Sorry bud, someone must have taken it from me, but I might have something to help"

The man pulls out two items, one of which was a coat hanger, and proceeds to give us a lesson on how to break into a car (essentially.)  A quick demonstration on his truck and we were ready to give it a shot.  One hour and fifteen minutes of trying here is what we learned.

• Engineers have really taken into account "car theft," when designing the interior of my car (go figure)
• Flashlights work against you when you have reflective tent.  
• Breaking into cars is an easy game.  We did not get one visit from a police officer, not a single concerned citizen...nothing!  Did I mention we were doing this for an hour and fifteen?!?! We were not graceful about it either, it was sloppy. LED flashlights, coat hangers, and kitchen cleavers...ohhh...maybe that's why they didn't stop. hmmm     
• The stick is mightier than than the slim jim.  We were able to obtain access to my car with a twig from a tree...take that engineers, back to the drawing board!

This night eventually came to a full circle for me.  Granted that my spare key was a mere two exits away when we finally got in, it was a learning experience fo sho, but here is what I realized.  One random Sunday off, we spent the entire day down at the farmers market.  We jumped from there and moved onto the surrounding bars and food joints.  It was a good day never the less until I was walking to my car to see it "not" parked on the side of the road anymore (such a good parking spot too.) My car had been towed, despite what the police had told me (interesting story, police reports, weapons, and a lot of misunderstanding, ask me at the bar one day.)  A trip to the impound with their criminal fees and a ticket later, and I was ready to slash the tires of every tow truck in town.  I am "cool, calm, and collected," as they would say, so yes, I bit my lip and decided not to act on first impulse.  So here is the clincher, the guy who helped us, you remember "Professor, Grand Theft," was one of these tow truck peeps.  Go figure right, a guy that would tow my car and bleed my wallet, giving me a free lesson on never having to call them again.  Priceless....priceless.