Hi,

A few months ago my car was broken into while I was fishing. The river was high after lots of rain, and though I covered a lot of water, all I had was one missed strike, which was near the end of the day when I finally switched over to the sinking line. Still, I enjoyed myself as I was fishing parts of the river I had only just discovered.

Anyway, while fishing the last pool before my exit point, a young fellow spotted me and told me that my car was broken into. Sure enough, they had smashed the front passenger window, showed contempt for my selection of music (checked out my CDs, but left them all), and stole my fly tying kit out of the back seat. What made it worse was that as I was heading to the river I noticed the kit and thought I should leave that but decided against it since I've fished there many times before and have never had a problem. Anyway, we reported it to the police who dusted the CD cases for prints and found some (probably mine since we've heard nothing since then), and did their best.

Our car insurance company fixed the car window no problem but they don't cover the contents of the car. However, our contents insurance policy for our apartment does cover the contents of the car. They sent a fellow around and I gave him the list of materials that was in the kit, and I had a quote put together from my local shop. It was an eye opener, because when I told the police the value of the kit I recall being quite serious when I told them it was probably worth $500, maybe even $600. Turns out, it came to $2,000! Good thing my wife also fly fishes and ties flies or I would have had some explaining to do over what would be viewed as $2,000 worth of chicken feathers.

Anyway, after quite a long delay, the adjuster finally sent the report in to the insurance company (only after we started calling the Insurance company rather than the adjuster, who just ignored our calls). And, they've decided to fully settle on the claim! This is great, because I've been re-buying everything anyway.

So, just as a reminder, don't leave anything of value in the car. If your car is broken into, and they take stuff, it may be your home contents insurance that covers it. And, most importantly, if the river is running high and discoloured, a sinking line and a large streamer is probably the way to go!

- Jeff