When Your Car Gets Stolen, Do This
Believe it or not, I do lead a busy life on the weekends in preparing for school the next week, in addition to correcting papers, tests, etc. That I am writing this on a Sunday afternoon may lead you to think otherwise. Rest assured, I only have about 40 ten to fifteen page papers to correct, with another 40 or so on the way this Thursday. So I should be otherwise occupied. But being a teacher means you can set your own deadline for getting things corrected (usually, unless the marking period is about to end, which it's not!), so I can give in to the sudden urge to report this story.
My car was stolen this last Friday. Yup, I had gone to the mall and made some very important purchases: Baseball Mogul 2008, which turns out to be a game with some serious flaws, but it's still entertaining; and my dinner, comprised of some Chinese food. I got out to the parking lot where I had parked my car. It was gone. I did a little double take, and looked for it again. It was still gone. I started to scan rows of cars that were next to the row I thought I had parked my car. It was still gone.
My brain began to race. "What is my license plate number? I'll need it to report a stolen vehicle." (Actually, I imagine they can look such things up on their system provided they have the make and registered owner, but I wasn't thinking too sharply in my semi-panicked state.) Thank goodness I had my cell phone on me to place the 911 call. I began to imagine the events that would unfold after calling 911. "I'm here to report a stolen vehicle." Some time later the police show up lights flashing, and an officer starts taking down vital info, such as when I left to enter Best Buy, when I came out, etc. Also in my thoughts: "Why would they steal MY car? It must be for the used parts or something." I know that Toyota Camry's or some such car get stolen a lot as used vehicles because their parts are fairly valuable. Must be a good black market for them. With that knowledge and my mind racing I contemplated the reason. And maybe because my teacher's bag was in sight? Maybe someone thought there were some valuables in it? Uh-oh, I'm going to have to tell some students to resubmit their research papers, because they were in that bag.
Ok, that's a semi-stream-of-consciousness recount of various thoughts I had. As time ticked by and it seemed more and more likely that my car had been stolen, as preposterous as it might seem (it's a Ford over ten years old with 150,000 plus miles on it!), I continued to scan the parking lot and look for my car, in case there was some outside chance I had missed it. It would be rather silly to call 911 before making absolutely sure that it wasn't there. But before I had begun a methodical walk up and down every single possible row that it could be in, I spotted it. There it was, right where I had left it. I don't know why I hadn't seen it before. I think maybe I saw it once but didn't recognize it, so went to the next row or two over. I dunno. But then I laughed out loud. For it was preposterous to think that someone would steal my car!! They'd have to be pretty desperate, that's for sure.
Has anyone else had a mall or other large parking lot incident where they couldn't find their car and begin to think it was stolen? I've had such incidents before, but none that I remember which went on as long as this one did. Though time slowed down a bit, I think it was probably a solid 2-3 minutes that I walked around and searched for my seemingly absent car. That's a LONG time when you think it's really stolen!
Lesson: When your car gets stolen, be very thorough and search everywhere in the parking lot before you report it! It will save some major embarrassment! I'm glad I waited a little before putting in a panicked (actually, I imagine myself being very calm and collected in reporting the theft of my car) 911 call, so that I never had to make the call!
My car was stolen this last Friday. Yup, I had gone to the mall and made some very important purchases: Baseball Mogul 2008, which turns out to be a game with some serious flaws, but it's still entertaining; and my dinner, comprised of some Chinese food. I got out to the parking lot where I had parked my car. It was gone. I did a little double take, and looked for it again. It was still gone. I started to scan rows of cars that were next to the row I thought I had parked my car. It was still gone.
My brain began to race. "What is my license plate number? I'll need it to report a stolen vehicle." (Actually, I imagine they can look such things up on their system provided they have the make and registered owner, but I wasn't thinking too sharply in my semi-panicked state.) Thank goodness I had my cell phone on me to place the 911 call. I began to imagine the events that would unfold after calling 911. "I'm here to report a stolen vehicle." Some time later the police show up lights flashing, and an officer starts taking down vital info, such as when I left to enter Best Buy, when I came out, etc. Also in my thoughts: "Why would they steal MY car? It must be for the used parts or something." I know that Toyota Camry's or some such car get stolen a lot as used vehicles because their parts are fairly valuable. Must be a good black market for them. With that knowledge and my mind racing I contemplated the reason. And maybe because my teacher's bag was in sight? Maybe someone thought there were some valuables in it? Uh-oh, I'm going to have to tell some students to resubmit their research papers, because they were in that bag.
Ok, that's a semi-stream-of-consciousness recount of various thoughts I had. As time ticked by and it seemed more and more likely that my car had been stolen, as preposterous as it might seem (it's a Ford over ten years old with 150,000 plus miles on it!), I continued to scan the parking lot and look for my car, in case there was some outside chance I had missed it. It would be rather silly to call 911 before making absolutely sure that it wasn't there. But before I had begun a methodical walk up and down every single possible row that it could be in, I spotted it. There it was, right where I had left it. I don't know why I hadn't seen it before. I think maybe I saw it once but didn't recognize it, so went to the next row or two over. I dunno. But then I laughed out loud. For it was preposterous to think that someone would steal my car!! They'd have to be pretty desperate, that's for sure.
Has anyone else had a mall or other large parking lot incident where they couldn't find their car and begin to think it was stolen? I've had such incidents before, but none that I remember which went on as long as this one did. Though time slowed down a bit, I think it was probably a solid 2-3 minutes that I walked around and searched for my seemingly absent car. That's a LONG time when you think it's really stolen!
Lesson: When your car gets stolen, be very thorough and search everywhere in the parking lot before you report it! It will save some major embarrassment! I'm glad I waited a little before putting in a panicked (actually, I imagine myself being very calm and collected in reporting the theft of my car) 911 call, so that I never had to make the call!
posted by redsoxwinthisyear at 5:00 PM
8 Comments:
Yeah- this has happened to me. I was quite panicked, in fact. And then I found it- a van had parked in front of it blocking my view...But oh MAN...for three or four minutes...eek. I know that horrified feeling too well.
Once we my mom couldn't find her car in the grocery store parking lot. Some guy from the grocery store was helping her look for it. Eventually they found it, and after they'd loaded all the groceries, the man from the store looked at our license plate and laughed and laughed. It said GPSMAP.
Ha ha cara, that's funny. Where's your gps when you need it?
Several time I've tried to get in the wrong car, especially when I had a blue Astro van, which is pretty common. That was a wee bit embarassing!
Eeeek - that was such a scary story! And the scariest part for me was the idea that student papers were inside. How's that for misplaced priorities! (TAKE MY CAR, BUT LEAVE THE PAPERS!!!) :) So glad it was all resolved okay:)
My car has been "stolen" many, many times! Only I never,ever in my remotest dreams have thought that anyone would ever steal one of our cars!! No need for panic there! Sooner or later I always find it one or two rows over from where I left it. . .! He, he, he!!
I remember one time Dad left our minivan in the ConVal parking lot--with the keys in the ignition. And still no one took it. A benefit of driving a Kingdom car, I guess!
Okay, this isn't my story, but I'll still tell it. Uncle Tim told me he has TWICE parked his car in Boston and been unable to find it afterward. I think that is pretty hilarious...I know once Andrea was with him (wasn't it the van during girls' week or something?) as they marched up and down streets looking for it. I don't think he ever thought it had been stolen...he just couldn't remember where he left it and took a long time finding it.
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