Lost Cars

[trailerparkmedic]

I work as a security guard for a company on a pretty big campus. I work in kind of a central office, and we answer the phone for the "security line." So, when people think their car has been stolen, they talk to us. It being a big campus, this happens fairly often--we got two gems today. Normally, this isn't something we even bat an eye at; we have a ton of parking garages, and they all have their floors numbered in the same weird way--Ground, 1, 2, etc. So, if you drive in and park on the first level that you see, you're parked on the Ground level. I'm sure you can see how this leads to a lot of people who think they've lost their car, only to find it on another level. Even more common, for only reasons SCs can fathom, is to find their car in a totally different garage. I got two fun ones today, though.

So, first SC. The first question our patrol drivers ask is if the driver is current on the car payment. I mean, this is where the SCs work, so if I was a repo man, I'd be there. The SC flips out at this question, yelling and screaming at the patrol driver. Once he calms down, the SC eventually says that he doesn't know the license plate, but he has the VIN number, and he doesn't want us to call the cops. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a repo at all.... Win for us, since we didn't have to write a report!

Second SC--our patrol driver asks him if anyone else might have access to the car. This look of understanding dawns on SC's face, and he says "Well, my girlfriend caught me cheating on her last night, and it's her car. I wonder if that has something to do with the car missing!" Our boss actually came out of his office to see if we were serious when we wrote that report up.

[Akasa]

ROFL at the second SC.
No, she's going to let your cheating ass keep the car she pays for! uh huh. Some people's children.

[Argabarga]

Reminds me of the time a gentleman in town here pissed off his girlfriend during the break up so bad that she took his car (he'd apparently given her a spare key) and drove it two towns over and then abandoned it in a glaringly-illegal place to leave a car, like a fire lane or blocking an alley, I can't remember.

In any event, by the time the guy found out what had happened, the car had racked up so much in towing/storage fees that he had to sell it for scrap to settle the bill as it was such a heap it wasn't worth trying to get it unimpounded.

[LillFilly]

Hee.

I had a guy like that, luckily did not turn into too much of an SC. He was reporting his car stolen, but by the time he decided to report it to security he had already been on the phone with the police, the local towing company, the dealership, and was currently on the phone with his wife as he tried talking to us, basically insisting that it was NOT in the parking lot. Long story short, we went and looked for the car and found it! Gasp! Wait for it..... 5-rows away from where he THOUGHT he parked (you could see it from the entrance)! Usually people come to security first, then we look for it, call the police if it's not found, etc. This guy didn't show much emotion after we found the car, just hung up his phone and left. No thank you, no nothing. Oh well, at least there was no stolen car report to do, but the police were not happy they'd come for nothing.

[Imogene]

unimpounded.

<tangent> It must be early, I saw that word, and looked at it really closely, trying to figure out what it meant... and if it was really a word... and thought, "What's the opposite of impounded? -Im... Pounded? Hey, I got my car pounded? Dirty..."

Sad to say, I've seen the porn of that...

[protege]

Reminds me of what the store manager at Hechinger's did once. The poor bastard got his job simply because he went to school with one of the then-owners. Nice guy, but a total moron. Anyway, at noon, he drove over to one of the fast-food joints in the shopping center...and then walked back. Apparently forgot about it...until he was leaving at 5. He comes running back into the store, calls the cops, because "OMG my car has been stolen!" Yep, he'd left his car in the Long John Silver's parking lot, and yes, he was the butt of *many* jokes for months after that

[Pagan]

Anyway, at noon, he drove over to one of the fast-food joints in the shopping center...and then walked back. Apparently forgot about it...until he was leaving at 5.

Book manager where I worked did something like that once. Only he had taken the bus to work and forgot he had done so.

[scruff]

they all have their floors numbered in the same weird way--Ground, 1, 2, etc.

Why is that wierd? That's how our floors are numbered here.

[Dreamstalker]

"Ground floor" in the UK (and possibly elsewhere as well) is "first floor" in the States, at least in my experience.

Yeah, we're weird

[freeatlast]

Back when I worked for the Call Center from Hell, management observed Customer Service Week each year. One of the things that they did was draw names for each day of that week for winners who would get to park in their supervisors' reserved parking spaces. One year, I was a lucky winner in that drawing. So, when I got to work, I parked in my supervisor's space and went on about my day. At quitting time, as usual, I left with my little group of friends that worked the same shift as me. We got to the parking lot and my car was not there. It was a 10 year old beat up Sunbird that had the paint peeling off the roof. It had been fully paid for for several years, so there was no worry of repossession. One of my friends suggested that maybe it had been stolen, but I couldn't believe that anyone would steal my 10 year old crappy car. After about 10 minutes, it hit me - I was looking in the regular employee parking lot. I had parked that morning in the reserved parking lot. DUH!!! I felt so stupid. One of my friends dropped me off at my car (conveniently located very close to the door) on her way out of the parking lot. And boy did I get teased for the next few weeks. A blond moment for sure.