The Robbery and Evidence

If you aren't reading chronologically, you may miss the full depth of this post. Check out the last post to get a glimpse of how joyful things were. Oh, how innocent and virginal.

I drove north from Fortuna, CA to Orick, CA to hike into Redwood National Forest and see the Grove of the Tall Trees. At one time, this grove had the tallest tree in the world, but sometime in the past decade a wind storm blew the top off. These trees are so impressive and I am not sure if the pictures do them justice. There is something so crazy about the width of the base and then looking up 320 feet or so to the top of a gigantic tree that has been around longer than Christianity. The hike was exhausting. I don't know what made me think that I could quickly hike through the forest for 7.7 miles there, a mile loop of the grove, and 7.7 miles back. It was bear and cougar country and I was constantly on guard. I was dreaming of getting into a fist fight with a bear and ending up on The Colbert Report recounting my adventure to Stephen. At a particularly dark part of the wood, I kept thinking that I saw Sasquatch around the bend. I didn't know how I would knock him out, but I hoped I could use my Judo moves on him.
Finally, I made it to the grove and had a good hour sitting, reflecting and calming down in the presence of the old trees. The trip back was psychologically faster, but I was more exhausted. When I saw the parking lot, I was overjoyed.
But only for that moment...
The first thing that I noticed was that there was no reflection from the rear window of my Fit. As I got closer, I saw that it was busted out and there was glass scattered in the parking lot. My thoughts went straight to the stuff that I had left in the car. I saw that the vandals took my bags of clothes, my tent and sleeping bag, my guitar and other things that had been in the 'trunk' part of my car. Luckily for me, the villains were not able to unlock the doors from the back. These horrible thieves cut themselves on my back window and must have given up trying to get stuff through that window. The evil doers took the rock they had used to bust the back and went after the driver's side window. The pictures show the evidence. They threw the rock 3 times and bled on the door, but couldn't get in. Something must have spooked the criminals and they gave up; also, their window-breaking rock broke.
I saw that they left my laptop, my books, my food and some other random things. They didn't find the cash secretly hidden in my car. I called 911 and they transferred me to the Forest Service. A ranger came out and helped me calm down, take evidence and explained the situation. He said that they have been having trouble with two groups of criminals. The locals have been breaking into cars that are parked over night at remote campgrounds. Homeless people living in the park have also been smashing and grabbing from tourists. He believed it was a homeless person because my clothes and tent were taken, but I believe it to be a local. Using my CSI skills, I noted a trail of glass from where it was scattered on the ground away to another parking spot. It would seem that the guilty took my stuff from my car to their car and trailed the glass on the way. The Ranger and I decided that it would be no good to take blood samples.
I drove back to Eureka, CA to try to get the windows fixed.

One positive note: I am now clothes-less and I get to buy all new clothes. My first purchase was some new jeans from Target. They are the hipster style, dark, slim and cool. I got advice from the Target employees, don't worry. Also of note, new boxers are uncomfortable.

So, that is the drama, and here are the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/yourfriendtyler/TheRobbery?feat=directlink

The culprit