Amazing response to Buckle Up

This is from an old friend Melissa. Too good not to share.

Hey Doug.

Your car stories prompted me to share a quick story… Mike and I have a good friend, the best man in our wedding actually, who lived in Jersey City after college, where he worked as a teacher. He never, ever would lock his car in college, and always kept a spare set of keys in the glove compartment. Of course, he continued these habits when he moved to NJ. One morning, he was leaving to go to work and his car was gone. He called the police, described the car, and the officer told him—“oh, we just found that car in an alley with the keys in it—we haven’t even filled out a report yet. Come on down and pick it up.” No paperwork was ever filed. Of course, that didn’t make him change his habits though, and sure enough, a few months later, he gets ready to leave for work again, and the car is gone again. He calls the police, files the report, and they tell him that it probably won’t be found. His golf clubs, laptop and grade book had been inside the car. Gone. He files an insurance claim and gets new golf clubs. (Though he had to tell a few lies to the police and insurance company, because he had it registered to his parents house in NY where the insurance was cheaper, so he tells the police he was just visiting NJ.) Weeks go by. He’s a runner, and was out for a run one day a few miles from his apartment. Sees a car that was just like his, with the same bumper sticker he used to have, but this car had temporary NJ plates (again, his were NY plates). Gets closer and realizes, this is his car. He tries the handle. Locked. He runs home, gets his keys, runs back, opens the car, and steals it back! Called the police to tell them he found it (which, they were not pleased about—they wanted to stake out the area to catch the person). Golf clubs and laptop were still there, and the NY plates were in the trunk. Grade book was gone for good!

He encourages us to tell this story whenever we can because his life’s goal is for someone to tell it back to him someday in a bar somewhere, so that he can say “That was me!!”

Hope you’re doing well!

-Melissa