the case of the missing car

Last night, Justin tied on his shoes, packed up his sports bag, and headed out to play basketball with some friends. I didn't expect him back for a couple hours. But a couple minutes later, he walked back in...

"Sarah," he asked, "Did you move the car?"

Realizing the implications of that question (either we are really, really forgetful about where we park, or the crime rate in this town finally got to us personally), and was reluctant to answer, "No...Did you?"

"We parked it right outside, right?" he continued.

"Yes." But a case of a whole car gone missing takes some time to settle in, and my brain wasn't ready to accept the suspected truth. "And you put the club on it last night, right?"

"Yes."

We started to go through all the possibilities. Housing sometimes tows cars for not having the right sticker, but we just put ours on a few days ago...We weren't parked illegally or in the way of snowplows (no snow yet!), so they wouldn't've towed it for that...Could it be?...Stolen?

Now, we don't use our car that often. We use our feet, bikes, and buses to get around town. But for a weekend away, or to shop for non-grocery items (we get our groceries delivered), it is pretty much essential. Still, to have the car stolen--UGH. It's a violation of our right to property.

And we like that car. It's taken us on two cross-country trips; it has a ever-so cool rack recently installed on the top; and when we call it a grandma car, we mean it affectionately: It actually was owned by Justin's grandma.

Just look at our trusty, faithful, cool car, here serving us well in Lousiana:




Naughty words ran through my head.

After standing outside staring at the parking lot, which didn't magically bring back our car, we went inside to call the cops.

The cops informed us that, thankfully, our car had not been stolen, it was just impounded after all. By the tax department. Apparently, our property tax statement had gone to our old address, and we never got it...And since it was due two and a half months ago, the city saw fit to impound it. ("Failure to receive a notice is not a reason to fail to pay taxes.")

And get this--the tax department stays open until 10pm. What government office stays open until 10pm? The kind that tows your cars, I guess. So Justin (my hero) rode his bike downtown, paid the taxes and overdue fee, then rode to the car lot and got the car back for another hefty fee. Sheesh.

But at least we have our car again.