Car bling theft

Someone stole my car's nose ring! Okay, now that I have your attention:

Friday morning, I had a horrible headache, so I asked DH (who works from home on Fridays) to take Luke to daycare that morning. When he got out of the car in the garage after he got home, something smelled like it was burning. We had just had a lot of work done on my car Thursday. Apparently, a something or other had gotten stuck on my brakes, causing them not to release, so I drove around for a good couple of weeks with my brakes slightly but constantly applied. There was no way to know or prevent it, but it wore both my brake pads and my rotors out completely, which also overheated the brake fluid and caused uneven wear to my tires. I had dollar signs flashing before my eyes, OUCH! Anyway, having just had that work done, we knew it could just be something spilled and is burning off, but he went around to the front of the car to see if he could see anything underneath.

That's when he noticed the hole in the front of my grill! The Toyota emblem was missing. Huh? Did they just forget to put it back in? I called Toyota to see if they knew anything about it, and our regular tech guy (Tim) said that someone had probably stolen it. I'm sorry, what? Someone stole it? Why?! "To make bling. They have them gold-plated and wear them on chains around their necks." I am speechless. That makes no sense! First off, it's not like I drive a Mercedes or something flashy and expensive. It's a 9 year old Toyota Camry with 112,000 miles on it for cryin' out loud! Secondly, didn't stealing hood ornaments go out of style in the 60s or something? Sheesh!

I didn't notice it missing when we left, but who really looks at the front of their car? We had only been a few places since then, and I doubt someone could have taken it. When we picked up Luke at daycare, I stayed in the car. We then went to Arby's for dinner, and there had just been an accident in front of the restaurant, so there was a cop parked in the space directly behind our car with her lights on writing up the report, so I doubt someone was that brazen to snatch it right out from under the nose of a cop. And then we came home and parked it in our closed garage; no chance of it going missing there. It had to have happened at the dealer.

I was all prepared to make this speech at the dealer to indicate that I had no intention of paying for a new one, but it was a non-issue. He checked the front to see if any of the parts that hold it in place were broken. Then he disappeared. I was starting to worry when he was gone for a good 10 minutes, but he finally came back with a new emblem in hand. Their inventory showed one in stock for our car, but given its age, he had to really hunt for it in the warehouse. He walked back out to the lot with us, popped it in, and that was it! (Yes, they just pop in and out, all you need is a little leverage. No wonder they get snatched!) He apologized for the trouble, shook our hands, and we were on our way. There is something to be said for being good long-time customers, I guess (who had just paid nearly $800 the day before). I suppose a new emblem was the least they could do to keep us happy. But hey, I'm all for good customer service, and I am not likely to forget it.

Currently feeling: baffled