“She’s pretty emotional,” he said.
I’m not sure what I answered, but it was probably something to the effect that I am a trained professional, and emotional callers are nothing new to me. (It probably really wasn’t much like that at all, but regardless he put her on the phone.)
“Ma’am,” I said, “When was the last time you saw your car?”
“Well,” she said between sobs, “it’s kinda funny. My car is still here, but someone has stolen my seat covers and steering wheel cozy and changed the locks so my key doesn’t work.”
“Someone changed the locks on your car?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes,” she whimpered.
I channeled all the understanding niceness I could as I began the next question. “Are you sure that you didn't park somewhere else and this is somebody else’s car?”
“No – this is my car.” She mustered as much defiance as she could between weepy breaths.
“I’ll send them right over.”
Ten minutes later the security officer called back saying that the young lady had located her real car just a few spots away from the car that apparently wasn’t really hers.
I have no words.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a college student and didn't want to pay for a parking pass to my apartments, I alternated between parking my car at the stadium and on the street. Somebody stole back speakers from my car. I was distraught for about a week, and then they returned them and reconnected them. What are the chances that I drove the wrong car for a week?
ReplyDeleteI actually had the opposite experience. When working at Pepperidge Farm in the dead of winter in Richmond, UT, I went to get in my car around midnight one time, put the key in (this was 1999 or so, car was a 1991 Camry), and the key kind of stuck. So I forced it just a bit and the locks opened. I sat down on the seat, suddenly thinking 'what the hey?' because someone had installed a pair of those large wooden bead seatcovers on my front seats! I liked them, but then noticed they had also replaced my stick shift with an automatic. I started getting a little suspicious at that point. Moral of the story; old cars + minus 20 degree temps = malleable door locks. (Car wouldn't start though. Had to try, in the interest of science.)
ReplyDeleteI wonder who was more embarrassed; her or the security guards?
ReplyDeleteWhen walking out of Walmart into the parking lot, we were met by a couple trying to get a large bouncy ball out of our car. They had loaded their groceries (and bouncy ball) into our unlocked car only to realize they had the wrong car. I'm sure they hoped to escape without being caught in their mistake, but it gave us a laugh.
ReplyDelete