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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/7ransparency on 2024-11-17 04:50:24+00:00.
A few hours ago my neighbour sent me a text saying that my garage door has been open for a few days and whether I’d like for them to close it for me. That’s strange I thought, I never leave it open. For context I’m in a townhouse complex and the closest garage to the main entrance garage shutter, my garage door has a 4 digit combo lock that I just clockwise and anti-clockwise one digit every time instead of mixing it all up, figured one 4 digit is as good as any other.
Went down there and the garage is empty. My heart immediately sank to the floor, and stayed there.
You hear about these things but just don’t expect it to ever happen to you, you know? I only got the car 2yrs ago after wanting it for 15yrs… Stood there for what felt like an eternity. How could this happen? Why oh why me?
Went back up to the house and just sat there for the next 2hrs, defeated (have only 3rd party insurance) and had no idea what to do, I WFH and use the car 1-2x/wk, last time was Tuesday when I went into work and got some groceries on the way back. For all I know it could have been a whole 5 days since it was stolen. After much chewing over the matter I decided to call the police to report it stolen, having zero faith of recovery. The report took 10mins, they asked a bunch of questions and I answered in a zombie manner, was told they’ll do what they can and get back to me.
The next few hours was a blur, I browsed Reddit/YT mindlessly to pass time. Then decided to go back down to the garage to see whether the padlock was cut. It wasn’t… And it was in the same spot that I’d usually leave it right by the floor, hold up… 🤨 If this wasn’t a forceful entry where the fuck is my car?
I had retraced my steps time and time over and over again for the past few hours and couldn’t figure it out, I went to work and finished quite late and was tired, went to get groceries, came back home, that’s it.
Then, a light bulb went off. I had gone and gotten groceries yes, but, I had forgotten something and didn’t realise until was almost home so drove to a tiny community grocer on the way back to grab it there. I go there from time to time but always on foot as to drive there takes exponentially longer to do a big loop and cross many more streets. So, after I grabbed the missing item I just naturally walked back home due to habit, and thought nothing more of it.
OMFG.
I ran towards the grocer’s parking lot immediately, every single step felt like a million miles away and I was both striving for pending relief, or, pending misery. It’s usually a 2mins walk, though the journey felt like a lifetime.
When I finally got there, yup my baby’s sitting right where I left her.
Human behaviours are fascinating aren’t they? The second I saw the car from a distance the first thing that came to my mind was oh I hope I didn’t get a ticket, as if I just erased the past few hours from the mind immediately. Luckily, I did not.
Drove it home and locked up, rang the police back telling them sorry I was a complete moron. They asked a few more questions and I’m sure I’ll get a mention during their lunchtime chat for wasting their day for no reason.
Some of the groceries are spoiled after sitting in the sun for the last 5 days, I’ll make a trip to replace them later on today, and will make sure I complete the entire shopping list in one trip.
TL;DR thought my car was stolen from the garage, instead I was just a muppet.