The Battery - Part One

It was 1976 and all was right with my world. I had returned to Baltimore after a year in Kansas City, I was back at my job and the stars were all in alignment.


My old house, the one involved in the last two posts, was fine, and just required the normal constant maintenance, as would any place from 1894.

My driveway was long and straight, and usually I parked up front, near the street, rather than pull way in to the back of the property. I came out one morning to start my 1972 Dodge Van and it was dead. I turned the key a few times but got nothing. Finally, in desperation, I got out and opened the hood. There was little I could do, but opening the hood is a requirement if your car won’t start.

I was shocked to see I had no battery!

It took a moment to realize someone had opened my car and taken it! Violated my space! I was dumbfounded.

I called the police to report the violators and was of course, just like any other first time theft experience, shocked that they didn’t appear within minutes with a crime unit and dogs, taking prints and interviewing neighbors. They gave me a report number to give to the insurance company. I, like any other violated citizen, ran in and called the insurance company, having gotten my special, new case number.

I gave a detailed report to my insurance company and they took careful details which included the date the battery went into service. I didn’t think about this as my concern was for justice! I had to spend lots of money to get a new battery and I wanted justice.

A few weeks later I received a check from the insurance company for compensation for my new battery. It was based not on replacement value, the amount I had to spend for the new one, but on residual value, the amount of value left in the battery itself. The amount was based on the facts I gave them, it was the battery that came with the car, four years before.

I received a check for $2.46.

To add insult to injury, several years later the company dropped us because we had made three claims in a five year period. One was for the battery, one was a serious claim for roof damage in a storm, and one was for bicycle theft for less than $25. The only good news was that we were moving, and dropping us didn’t matter, besides, we changed states, so we became new customers of the same insurance company 500 miles away!

The bicycle was recovered by the police a year after the theft and I called the insurance company and asked them to retrieve their bicycle. They said they would, but after several more years I gave it away.