Craig had Dodge Rams for years because of work and for the same reason as CD, a boat that had to be towed. He had a Ford Bronco before the Rams.
Funny story, sort of because I still get ticked off about part of it even after all these years, I don't remember the year but it had to be mid to late 90s at least, maybe in 2000s. I'm not good with vehicle years. Dodge had just redesigned the look of the front of the Rams to kind of a retro style and Craig had 1 of the new ones, and there weren't many around yet. It also had 1 of those little sliding windows in the back, this will come into play later, twice actually. We also had 1 of those steel diamond storage things that fit across the bed up next to the cab put in. That thing wasn't cheap either.
Less than a month after we bought the truck, Craig didn't come home at the usual time. He'd never not come home as usual without a phone call. Hours later, past our normal bedtime, he's still not home, no phone call, nada. This is long before cell phones were commonplace so there were still payphones everywhere. Of course, I'm freaking out. I called the highway patrol to see if there had been any accidents on the interstate he used to get home, nope. Called the local police department, another nope.
Finally, a little after midnight, he calls. After the usual are you okay, where are you, what happened questions, I find out his boss asked all the guys if they wanted to go to a stripper bar and have some fun, and while he was having FUN with the strippers, his brand new truck was STOLEN. After they dealt with the police, several of them had the bright idea to drive around for a couple of hours trying to see if they could spot the truck. No luck obviously. I was furious of course because he hadn't the common courtesy to call and tell me he was going out with the guys, more on that later. I wasn't particularly pleased about the truck being stolen either, particularly given the circumstances. Then, he asked me to come get him. Mind you, it's after midnight, they'd been driving around for around 2 hours in a search that they should have known wasn't going to be successful, and it's a 45+ minute one way trip to where he's at, the shop, which was not in the greatest neighborhood. I totally lost it at that point. Told him he could sleep at the shop or go home with one of his coworkers or boss, or do whatever he wanted, but there was no way in he// that I was coming to get him after what he had put me through.
Regarding him not calling, this was before I started working from home and my boss had done the same as Craig's, though just to a regular bar, just a few weeks earlier. I called Craig's work but he wasn't back yet so I left a message and asked them to please leave the message somewhere he would be sure to see it if they left before he got back. Well, they didn't, they left it in his normal message box. When I got home about 2.5 hours later than normal, he jumped all over me for being late and not calling because he was so worried, not giving me a chance to talk until he ran out of steam. So, you can understand why I was so angry that he hadn't called.
They found his truck within a week or so. On concrete bocks, no wheels or tires, storage box gone, tools all gone, ignition damaged, but in good shape otherwise, except the little window on the back had been jimmied open and had some damage. The cops said that was probably how they got in. The insurance paid for everything but the deductible, which was about half the cost of his diamond storage box thingy. He said something about replacing the box. My response was save up for it out of your weekly allowance since you obviously have money to burn out of it since you can go to a ...(not very nice terms for breasts and buttocks) bar. We both got same allowance amount each week BTW to be used for lunches, going out after work with friends, mad money, etc.
Then, when he'd had the truck for almost a year, it got broken into again. Remember the shop was not in the greatest neighborhood. One of the guys walked out of the building to smoke and caught a young African American boy head and torso in the cab through the little sliding window. The guys brought him in the shop and called the cops. They arrested him and took him to juvenile. Craig got a notice for court so he went. The kid had a rap sheet a mile long for various kinds of theft. The judge found the kid guilty and sentenced him to some time in juvie, as well as restitution for the cost of fixing the sliding window. At that point, his mother spoke up with I can't afford that, I've got other kids and we're on welfare. So, we got nada.
Learned our lesson, no more trucks with sliding windows and Craig learned that if he expected me to call if late that he'd better do the same.
