Dear Sarah Cahill saw my sad post about the recent theft of my 2002 Subaru and suggested I start a GoFund me. It's a little embarrassing but I am taking her suggestion. On Friday night thieves stole my old, dented, but perfectly good car out of my garage and abandoned it two blocks away. They hot wired it and destroyed the driver's side lock and the ignition and steering column. I spent all day yesterday communicating with mechanics all over the Bay Area. They can't get the parts needed to fix the thing. I had planned to get another 75,000 miles out of this car. Extra sad: I just paid $195.00 to fix the rear window that thieves smashed in uptown Oakland last fall, and $156.00 to register the car for $2024. I had no theft insurance because the car was so old. Looks like I'll have to come up with $8000-$10,000 to replace this with another old car. All donors will get brownies, apple and pecan pies, and lemon blueberry cakes aplenty from me in return.

I have lived in Oakland for about 28 years as a renter. Even after I was punched in the head on the street in Oakland several years ago, I remained intrepid. No more. What is happening here now is awful.