It's April First and the Joke's on Us

I neglected to mention this a few weeks ago when it happened, because our "furry house guest" seemed the bigger deal at the time.

Three weeks ago, Mallory and I walked out of the house and towards the car. We were on the way to church. As we got closer to the car, we realized that it was missing something pretty important. The passenger mirror was gone. With the passenger side parked snug against the curb, and the mirror in place the night before, there was only one explanation. Someone had broken it off and stolen it during the night.

Shocked and already late for church, we just got in the car and went about our business. What would be the point of filing a report on something like a stolen mirror??

Fast forward to today- April Fool's Day.

Same scenario, plus Drew. The three of us were on our way to the car (and miraculously on time for church!). We rounded the corner and ahead saw a Pontiac like ours- same year and model, only a different color.

It was parked across the street from ours.

Still too far to really see anything, but jokingly I said, "look, there's our mirror."

We laughed as it had become a running joke every time we saw a car like ours with a passenger mirror attached.

As we neared the car and began to pass, we instinctively all glanced at "our mirror"...

Silence. We were dumbfounded. Then Mal or Drew broke the trance and voiced what we were all thinking.

"IT IS OUR MIRROR!"

Sure enough, the tinted windowed, scratched, scraped, and damaged silver car was sporting OUR mirror. And it sat across the street from ours. AND it was only a half block from our front door.

The three of us milled around the car. What to do?? I scribbled the plate information down and we hurriedly hopped in our own car. Mallory drove quickly as the police station quickly became our new destination.

Long story short, complaint made, and response handled, we found ourselves back in front of the silver car. The cop arrived shortly after we did. He rolled down his window as he pulled up and looked at me.

"Are you responding to a complaint made at the station?" I asked.

"Yeah. Now... what exactly happened??"

I explained that my missing mirror (pointed to the car behind me that Drew and Mal were in) was on THAT car (pointed to car two cars down). He gave me a "huh?" look and said, "Let me park my car and have a look."

So he did. First at our car (with our missing mirror and broken parts still dangling on the door) and then at the ghetto rigged silver car with OUR green mirror on it (see below).




An "I can't believe I'm seeing this" expression came over his face and he said, "I've never seen anything like this."

Great. Leave it to us to show Officer Thompson, a D.C. cop, something new.

He walked around the car again and then called in the plates while we waited. He shook his head.

A minute later his radio crackled and he interpreted. "They can't trace the car to anyone. The tag isn't registered." It was at that moment that we noticed the missing inspection sticker. A temporary parking tag was placed in the window.

"There's nothing I can do. We can't trace the car to anyone."

Mal, Drew, and I looked at each other. This could not be the end.

I walked to the driver's side where the temporary tag was located. March 23rd was written on it. Someone had initialed it. "Can you trace the number of the temporary tag?" Surely there had to be a record on March 23rd.

"Yeah, I can try that," he answered. So we waited again while he radioed for someone and interpreted the static. He had a name and an address. We were standing four doors away from his house- Tyronne's.

Tyronne's house had an eviction letter on the front door and no one answered as Officer Thompson knocked (surprise, surprise).

While we waited, we touched our mirror and looked closer at how it was attached (barely) to the door. Two fresh bolts held it in place. While the bottom part of the mirror was cracked (undoubtedly damaged when either ripping it off our car or drilling a hole in it to fasten it to Tyronne's), the top part was in good shape. The mirror wiggled quite a bit, but was fastened well enough to function.

"It would be easy to take off... all one needs is a Phillips head screw driver," Drew said.

The cop returned and I finished snapping some shots with my camera phone. I knew even then that you guys would have to see it.

"There's basically nothing I can do from this point. I can't take the mirror off his car and give it to you. Even if he was here, I couldn't make him take the mirror off just because you think it's your mirror," the officer said. Was that slight pity in his eye? He asked us some more information- details for a report that will eventually be filed away and followed up by only dust.

So, admitting defeat, we finally parted from the officer and Tyronne's car. And our mirror.

It's funny in a "can you believe that?" kinda way. Our mirror sits a half a block away. The owner's car is illegally being driven and an eviction notice is on his house. As we drove away, Mallory said... "I know where I recognize the name Thompson from! His name was on all the parking tickets we got!"