Stupid people broke into my car

Last weekend, someone broke into my car. It did not require a lot of effort on their part; one of the windows on my car is broken and does not roll up all the way. That's how they got in.

After that they seemed to some kind of a brain fart because they did not steal anything that was really worth anything. They did not steal my car stereo or the car seat for my daughter, both easily worth a couple hundred dollars. When they opened my trunk, they did not touch the box of collectible magazines, some of which are worth $50-100 each. Nope, the only thing they took was my old briefcase from college with my Sunday night gaming supplies; 1 D&D players handbook ($20), 1 bag of dice ($20-30), 2-3 miniatures ($10-15), and a couple of old adventure modules from the 1980s ($20-40) as well as some hand written notes and a couple of CDs with data saved on them.

It will cost me between $70-100 and some time on EBay to replace everything I lost and all I absolutely have to replace is the Player's Handbook and dice ($40). This is still frustrating because I had collected some of the dice I had over the last 15 years and they may not be available anymore. And the Player's Handbook is for version 3.5 and the D&D rules are updating to 4th edition this June so I'm going to replace a book I've owned for 5 years so I can use it from 5 more months and then buy another handbook. (That sounds a lot like the complaints I get from students regarding textbooks. Hmm.)

The truly disappointing thing is that whoever took my briefcase probably does not care about any of this stuff. They saw a professional-looking, black leather briefcase and thought it might have a laptop or Ipod or some other handy electronic device in it. Had they even tried to look, they would have discovered the case was unlocked and it was obvious that there was nothing of value to anyone who doesn't play D&D. But I lost in the case of some of the notes and hand-drawn maps things I had kept for over 25 years (I started playing D&D in 1980). So I've lost a piece of my childhood in the form of a town map I created and some character notes on paper that was once bright white but is now yellowed with age. And I've lost name badges and game handouts from events I participated in during my college years. Memories that cannot be replaced and have a value which cannot be measured.