Our poor scooters have gotten bumped into, knocked over, blown over, and they’ve even had cigarettes put out on them. But besides some pride-deflating scratches, they’ve always taken a lickin’ and kept on tickin’. Until about two weeks ago. Stephanie and I were just getting home from work when we noticed a piece of blue plastic hanging off of her scooter. So we checked them out and discovered that someone had knocked them over, dominoes-style.

People ask us if anyone ever leaves a note. Never. Not once.

I also noticed that Stephanie’s left brake was dangling at a weird angle. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that it had completely broken off the handlebar—which meant her scooter was no longer in ridable condition. After calling our insurance company (Geico) to find out what our options were, we took them over to Vespa SF to get an estimate.

On one level I figured that this might work out for the best. I haven’t really been riding my scooter much anymore, so I’d started thinking that it might be time to sell it. Now at least it would be coming back from the shop in pretty good condition. The only concern was that given how inexpensive a scooter is (compared to a car) and how expensive the service and repairs tend to be, we were actually in danger of the cost of repairs exceeding the current market value of the scooters.

The estimate for the repairs on my scooter, all of which were essentially cosmetic, came out to a jaw-dropping $3,100. Keep in mind that the scooter cost me just under $5,000 new. To my surprise, the insurance inspector approved the work. Stephanie’s scooter was another story. Hers was a year older than mine, and the damage was more substantial, so in the end he decided to total it. The abrupt finality of his decision came as a shock, even though we had been anticipating it all along.

I still clearly remember an ecstatic Stephanie picking up her brand new (to her) baby blue scooter out in front of City Hall. That was exactly 3 years ago this month.