Times City Hall reporter David Zahniser cracks Column One for the first time with a first-person story about his 1989 Toyota Camry being stolen and recovered three times in six years.

The third time around, I've become a bit slack about the whole routine. I don't bother with a rental car. Although I call the police immediately, I wait a few days with the insurance company. Why stress them out? To them, I am just the Boy Who Cried Theft.

The car I bought eight years ago would fetch $1,500 on a good day, according to the Kelly Blue Book. It had piles of notebooks and newspapers on the seats. Until recently, it was known for the piece of metal that dangled from the passenger side.

My mother, upon learning of the latest theft, sums up the car's worth by asking in a slightly panicked tone: "Did you leave anything valuable inside?"

And yet, the less appealing the Camry is to my friends and family, the more alluring it has become to would-be thieves.

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Almost any key, if shaved properly, will turn the lock of a 1989 Camry, law enforcement experts tell me. By now, the lock on my car is so abused and misshapen that an errant tree branch might do the trick.

When the Camry came back this time there was a DVD of "Bruce Almighty" in the trunk, "the cinematic equivalent of a 1989 Camry -- something no thief wants for very long."

Previously at LA Observed:
Zahniser to Times