Sunday, January 25, 2009

Some A--hole Left My F'ing Car 4 Blocks from the Apartment

What sort of an asshole steals my car, and dumps it 4 blocks away in an alley by a gas station?
A stupid one. Probably a junkie.

So I'm leaving this morning in the humiliating Dodge Caliber that the rental car gave me. I drive the usual route away from the apartment...a route I didn't take Friday because I went to a coffee shop in another direction and Heather (who took me to lunch! Thanks Heather) went a different direction. Even coming home I turned a block before the spot where I would have seen the car.
Yesterday I took an unusual direction out of town so I could get used to the aforementioned rental vehicle before hitting the highway.

Today, I take the usual route. About 4 blocks from the house (2 as the crow flies...) I glance an old green subaru in my peripheral vision. I thought "That looks like my car" and hang a left and pull up. It IS my car. It looks OK. (well, as OK as it was when I last saw it.)
I called the cops and told them I'd found my car. In about 20 minutes a cop was there and we chatted about it. It started. The steering wheel looked a bit jacked up, but sorted itself out once I started driving.
The engine has the same ticking. It all felt the same. I called the insurance. They asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to drive it today (since I was headed to Moscow for Maia's B-Day...Hi Maia). That way if there was a problem I'd find out now, before I gave the rental car back. The insurance dude said "OK, the rental place won't take the car back today anyway" (which sounds stupid but might be true...I think they must be open on Sunday).

I asked the cop how they took the car. He said old subarus, hondas and toyotas get so you can just file a key down and it will work. I asked what one does about that and he says "get the 'Club' and use it."

Now I look like an asshole because I have the "Club" on the steering wheel of a 15 year old junker.

The only stuff that I can figure out is missing so far is all the change and cash from the console and the key to my Plummer trailer. I called the landlord and asked for new locks. Since I hope to stay there tonight, I hope he hasn't changed them yet. If he has, I'll just go to a hotel. If I stay at the Spokane apartment, it will drive me nuts. I'll just be up all night looking out the window at my car.

Tomorrow I'll come into town and get rid of the rental car and finish packing for camping.

The good news is that I was leaving early for the B-day lunch and still made it on time even with time out to talk to cops, insurance folks, and call people and say "I found my car."

The cop said it was unusual for someone to find their own car. I suppose it is.
Good, but unusual.

And a message for Angela: I am SO SO SO sorry I bogarted your super funny email.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jill,

I'm so happy for this -- as grand theft auto stories go, your little gem came out fairly unscathed. But what a collasal pain in the rear. Why not just break in, take what you can,and then leave the car where it was? What's with the tour of the neighborhood/dump behind the gas station method of criminality? Stupid, stupid junky. Read the manual! As for my message, I'm over my hurt feelings. Remember, only 2% of me was resentful; the other 98% was good and true and wanted this to end happily. So glad. Tell Maia happy birthday!! Angela